"IS   IT   PEACE,   JEHU?" 


BY 

SEVERIN   NORDENTOFT 


WITH  AN  INTRODUCTION  BY 

G.  K.  CHESTERTON 


NEW  YORK 

FREDERICK   A.   STOKES   COMPANY 

PUBLISHERS 
1918 


PREFACE 

IN  the  year  1913  I  published  in  Copenhagen 
in  Danish  a  book  called  "  The  Pacifist  Cause," 
a  comprehensive,  critical  representation  of  its 
tasks,  material,  aims,  means  and  methods,  its 
mistakes,  its  results,  possibilities  and  prospects, 
its  dogmas  and  its  ultimate  issues,  but  not  in- 
cluding its  history,  organization,  and  personnel. 

To  this  book  I  added  a  Supplement  which 
was  intended  to  illustrate  the  chief  and  most 
deeply  rooted  causes  of  war,  and  to  state 
the  aims  and  to  explain  the  conditions  which 
appear  to  me  to  be  necessary  to  the  victory 
of  the  pacifist  cause  and  to  a  permanent  peace 
in  Europe.  This  Supplement  was  a  fiery 
pamphlet,  written  by  a  member  of  one  of  the 
oppressed  peoples.  It  contained  a  description 
of  the  reign  of  terror  under  which  he  was 
groaning,  and  was  provided  with  footnotes  by 
an  intelligent  and  large-hearted  subject  of  the 
ruling  nation. 

Since  then  the  world  war  has  come.  But  it 
has  changed  none  of  the  views  I  then  expressed. 


2227053 


Ti  PREFACE 

On  the  contrary,  one  of  the  Allies  has  inscribed 
upon  its  banner,  and  postulated  as  conditions 
of  peace,  word  for  word,  the  same  demands 
which  I  have  put  forward  in  my  book.  As 
these  demands  at  the  present  time  cannot  be 
too  often  and  too  energetically  proclaimed  from 
the  housetops,  as  it  presumably  will  be  welcome 
to  those  who  advocate  these  demands  to  see 
their  necessity  emphasized  in  a  way  which  must 
appeal  to  every  honest  man's  heart  and  head, 
and  as  I  should  like  to  address  a  larger  audience 
than  my  little  native  land  can  offer,  I  have 
resolved  to  present  to  English  readers,  not  only, 
the  Supplement  mentioned  but  also  the  Preface 
of  my  book,  some  pages  of  its  programme,  and 
a  couple  of  short  sections  containing  a  few 
proposals  for  pacifist  progress. 

Self-appointed  prophets  are  probably  plenti- 
ful in  Britain,  pacifist  literature  perhaps  also, 
but  an  appeal  like  the  one  contained  in  this 
Supplement  has  perhaps  not  been  read 
before  in  Britain.  British  people  will  here 
find  a  fine  illustration  of  what  it  is  they  are 
fighting  against  just  now. 

THE  AUTHOR. 
AARHUS,  DENMARK,  1915. 


INTRODUCTION 

DR.  NORDENTOFT  has  asked  me  to  contribute 
a  line  or  two  of  introduction  to  his  very 
interesting  book,  and  I  am  very  glad  to  do 
anything  I  can  to  assist  the  consideration  of 
so  able  and  important  a  statement,  even  where 
it  is  the  statement  of  a  view  not  identical  with 
mine.  I  doubt  if  there  is  any  precise  sense 
in  which  I  can  be  called  a  Pacifist,  except 
the  sense  in  which  every  man  is  a  Pacifist  who 
is  not  a  homicidal  maniac.  But  in  a  world  in 
which  homicidal  maniacs  can  apparently  wield 
the  power  of  empires  and  chancelleries,  the 
exception  is  not  insignificant.  It  is  further 
open  to  my  critics  to  say,  with  not  a  little 
plausibility,  that  if  I  were  a  Pacifist  I  should 
not  be  a  Practical  Pacifist.  Nevertheless,  a 
Practical  Pacifist  is  a  man  w«ll  worth  attending 
to  ;  and  Dr.  Nordentoft  really  is  a  Practical 
Pacifist  in  the  two  or  three  most  necessary  and 
most  neglected  practical  respects.  I  think  his 
book  very  significant  because  it  is  not,  like  so 
many  books  of  his  school,  merely  a  challenge 
to  Militarists  about  why  they  have  made  war  ; 


2  INTRODUCTION 

it  is  a  challenge  to  Pacifists  about  the  only 
human  and  tolerable  conditions  upon  which 
they  could  even  conceivably  make  peace. 

The  first  practical  point  is  that  any  serious 
Pacifist  must  be  anti-Prussian.  In  this  the 
author  has  a  special  claim  to  consideration 
merely  as  being  a  distinguished  citizen  of 
Denmark.  The  dismembered  kingdom  of 
Denmark  remains  as  a  more  solid  historical 
monument  to  the  methods  of  the  Prussians  even 
than  the  ruins  of  Louvain  or  the  damaged  tower 
of  Rheims.  In  this  Danish  tale  is  told, 
as  simply  as  in  the  Danish  tales  of  Hans 
Anderson,  the  true  story  of  Prussia  and  the 
small  nations.  For  there  could  not  possibly 
be  in  the  case  of  Denmark  even  those  hasty  and 
hypocritical  palliations  which  were  employed 
in  the  case  of  Belgium.  No  one  could  pretend 
that  Denmark  was  invaded  because  it  was  the 
quickest  road  to  France.  No  diplomatic  in- 
genuity could  connect  the  occupation  of 
Schleswig  with  the  mobilization  of  Russia. 
Nobody  could  represent  that  Holstein  was  a 
rampart  separately  seized  in  order  to  resist 
the  onrush  of  a  huge  European  alliance.  The 
Danish  provinces  were  seized  in  peaceful 
times— indeed,  in  far  too  peaceful  times  ;  for 
the  sort  of  peace  which  the  Great  Powers  pre- 
served in  the  presence  of  such  an  outrage  is 
the  sort  about  which  I  for  one  cease  to  be  a 


INTRODUCTION  I 

Pacifist.  They  were  seized  upon  an  excuse 
which  we  may  save  ourselves  the  trouble  of 
studying  ;  for  it  was  not  adhered  to,  even  by 
those  who  offered  it.  Even  upon  the  German 
theory,  the  Prussian  stole  from  Germans  if  he 
did  not  steal  from  Danes.  If  the  Danish 
provinces  belonged  to  anybody  except  the  King 
of  Denmark,  it  must  have  been  the  Prince  of 
Augustenburg ;  and  Bismarck  ended  by  dis- 
regarding the  Prince  of  Augustenburg  as  much 
as  the  King  of  Denmark.  In  its  treason  to 
friends  and  foes  alike,  but  primarily  in  its 
naked  and  godless  appeal  to  mere  power,  the 
thing  was  simply  a  working  model  of  the 
history  of  Prussia.  It  is  only  one  example,  but 
a  particularly  clear  example,  of  something 
which  the  Prussians  not  only  perpetually  did, 
but  perpetually  boasted  that  they  did,  until  a 
rather  singular  thing  happened  unexpectedly 
in  the  plains  of  Northern  Gaul,  which  we  call 
the  Battle  of  the  Marne. 

The  next  cogent  point  to  which  Dr. 
Nordentoft  draws  the  attention  of  his  own 
school  is  that  if  there  is  to  be  such  a  thing  as 
practical  Pacifism,  it  must  dismiss  nearly  all 
the  negative  notions  which  go  to  make  up  the 
great  part  of  theoretic  Pacifism.  It  must  not 
and  cannot  mean  mere  non-resistance.  The 
final  objection  to  what  is  called  "  peace  at  any 
price  "  is  simply  that  we  should  pay  the  price 


4  INTRODUCTION 

and  not  get  the  peace.  What  we  should  get 
would  not  be  peace  but  one-sided  war.  It 
might  lead  logically  to  nothing  except  the 
perpetual  shooting  of  unarmed  people  instead 
of  armed  people.  No  person  of  historical 
imagination  can  doubt  that  this  is  pretty  much 
what  would  really  happen  under  the  uncon- 
trolled power  of  the  Prussian,  as  it  has  already 
happened  in  certain  times  and  places  under 
the  uncontrolled  power  of  the  Turk.  Dr. 
Nordentoft  points  out  that  the  only  peace  for 
which  free  men  can  pray  anywhere  is  a  peace 
of  law,  and  that  law  guaranteeing  the  rights 
of  the  smallest  States  as  well  as  the  greatest. 
Whether  arrangements  such  as  he  would 
approve  would  establish  this  international  ideal 
may  be  debated  ;  but  anything  short  of  this 
cannot  possibly  be  called  an  international  ideal 
at  all.  Mere  disarmament  in  face  of  armed 
bandits  of  the  Bismarck  type  would  not  be  an 
ideal  at  all,  but  an  unprecedentedly  un- 
pleasant reality.  And  it  would  not  even  be 
international ;  for  the  very  word  "  inter- 
nationalism "  implies  the  recognition  of  nations. 
The  important  Supplement,  in  which  subjects 
of  Prussia  in  conquered  territories  describe  the 
facts  of  that  occupation,  ought  also  to  commend 
Dr.  Nordentoft's  book  to  any  one  who  wishes 
to  appreciate  both  the  tragedy  and  the  tenacity 
of  the  small  peoples.  The  candour  of  Dr. 


INTRODUCTION  5 

Nordentoft  will  itself  be  convincing,  since  h« 
has  embodied  in  the  book  criticisms,  or  at  least 
somewhat  plaintive  protests,  by  a  German  to 
whom  the  Supplement  has  been  submitted ; 
and  I  can  appeal  to  the  same  candour  in 
recording  my  own  conviction  here.  Whether 
or  no  a  civilized  humanity  can  get  rid  of  war, 
I  entertain  not  the  slightest  doubt  that  it  can 
get  rid  of  Prussian  war,  and  not  the  slightest 
hesitation  in  applauding  its  present  efforts, 
however  bitter  and  bloody,  to  do  so.  In  the 
better  times  after  that  just  consummation  the 
small  States  will  not  only  be,  as  Dr.  Nordentoft 
desires,  a  part  of  international  civilization :  they 
will  be  more  and  more  the  very  test  of  that 
civilization.  A  nation  is  judged  by  its  peasant ; 
and  Europe  will  be  judged  by  its  peasantries, 
but  especially  by  its  small  peasantries.  There 
will  be  no  better  test  of  whether  Christendom 
can  become  Christian  than  the  degree  of  dignity 
and  independence  that  our  international  scheme 
can  add  to  the  thrift  and  the  manhood  and 
the  merited  prosperity  of  the  Danes. 

G.   K.   CHESTERTON. 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 

PREFACE  .  .  .  .  .  .V 

INTRODUCTION  BY  G.  K.  CHESTERTON      .       .    1 
INTRODUCTION  BY  THE  AUTHOR    .       .       .9 

CHAPTER 

I.      ECONOMIC   WARS  .  .  .  .  .27 

II.      NATIONAL  WARS  .  .  .  .  .41 

III.  TO  ILLUSTRATE  THE    IMPORTANCE    OP    THE    RIGHTS 

OF   PEACE — A   SUPPLEMENT  .  .  .56 

IV.  THE  RIGHTS   OF  PEACE  .  .  .  .158 

V.  REVIEW  :  ON  THE  POSSIBILITIES  OF  THE  VICTORY 
OF  THE  PEACE  MOVEMENT  AND  OF  THE  EFFECTS 
THEREOF  .  .  .  .  .  .168 

VI.      EPILOGUE  :   PACIFIST  PROPOSALS   I  AND   II    .  .    191 

CONCLUSION  :     THE    PROGRAMME    OF    THE     PACIFIST 

CAUSE  .    208 


PRACTICAL   PACIFISM    AND 
ITS   ADVERSARIES 

INTRODUCTION 

WHEN  I,  who  am  neither  a  diplomatist,  a  states- 
man, a  representative  of  the  people,  a  military 
expert,  nor  even  a  pacifist  in  the  sense  of  being 
an  active  propagandist,  consider  the  pacifist 
cause,  then  I  feel  (as  probably  do  all  specialists) 
an  inclination  to  draw  analogies  and  compari- 
sons from  my  own  special  subject. 

Medical  science,  my  special  subject,  has  for 
thousands  of  years  tried  to  counteract  and 
conquer  one  of  the  great  plagues  of  mankind- 
Disease,  just  as  the  pacifist  movement  strives 
to  counteract  and  conquer  another  of  the  great 
plagues  of  mankind — War.  Perfect  victory  has 
not  yet  been  gained  in  my  subject.  We  have 
not  succeeded  quite  in  conquering  and  in  doing 
away  with  disease.  Sceptics  may  even  main- 
tain, perhaps,  that  no  progress  worth  mention- 
ing has  been  made,  that  man  is  hardly  now  any 
more  than  formerly  master  over  diseases,  the 
number  and  variety  of  which  have  not 
diminished  to  any  visible  extent,  and  that 


10         PACIFISM  AND  ITS  ADVERSARIES 

Disease  besides  is  a  factor  in  nature  which  is 
necessary  and  to  a  certain  degree  useful. 

Victory  has  still  less  fallen  to  the  lot  of  the 
pacifist  movement,  and  certain  (not  numerous) 
sceptics  will  even  maintain  that  nothing  has 
been  done,  and  that  nothing  will  be  done  worth 
mentioning,  that  the  efforts  of  the  pacifist  move- 
ment are  perfectly  hopeless  and  useless,  and 
that  War,  like  Disease,  is  a  factor  in  nature, 
which  is  necessary  and  to  a  certain  degree 
useful. 

As  regards  medical  science  such  criticism 
is  easily  refuted.  There  is  no  doubt  that  disease 
in  civilized  countries  has  become  noticeably 
limited  in  comparison  with  its  prevalence  in 
former  days  and  in  other  parts  of  the  earth 
lying  beyond  the  reach  of  medical  science. 
Medical  science  has  thus  prevailed  in  part,  and 
in  certain  parts  of  the  world,  and— this  is  a 
point  to  which  we  shall  return  later — not  over 
"  disease  "  in  general,  but  over  certain  special 
diseases,  while  it  yet  has  no  great  influence  over 
others. 

A  corresponding  victory  in  part  for  the 
pacifist  movement  is  perhaps  less  evident,  and 
the  cause  will  be  found,  according  to  the  opinion 
of  many  pacifists,  in  the  mere  childhood  of  the 
movement  at  present.  "  Let  it  first  reach  the 
age  of  medical  science,  and  we  can  expect 
similar  results." 


INTRODUCTION  11 

This  would  be  a  long  time  to  wait,  as  the 
history  of  medicine  as  an  empirical  science  goes 
back  over  more  than  two  thousand  years.  In 
this  connection,  however,  we  might  suitably 
point  out  that  it  is  in  the  course  of  the  last 
fifty  years  that  medical  science  has  won  victories 
more  brilliant  and  more  numerous  than  all 
those  secured  in  all  the  former  centuries  put 
together.  It  is  since  1860  that  medical  science, 
at  any  rate  in  civilized  countries,  has  taken  the 
sting  out  of  almost  all  epidemic  diseases  and 
has  sharpened  the  surgical  knife  into  a  keen 
and  effective  weapon. 

But  I  believe  too  that  it  will  be  readily  agreed 
that  the  pacifist  movement  is  both  far  older 
than  is  usually  supposed,  and  that  it  also  has 
some  partial  victories  to  show.  In  fact,  the 
pacifist  movement,  like  medical  science,  has  had 
a  long  history,  although  it  is  only  now  in  our 
days  that  it  has  made  its  great  stride  forward, 
and,  as  medical  science  even  in  its  dark  ages 
had  some  isolated  victories  here  and  there  to 
point  to  (the  treatment  with  mercury  of 
syphilis,  vaccination,  etc.),  in  the  same  way  the 
pacifist  movement  has  had  victories  of  its  own. 
It  has  not  conquered  all  over  the  earth  nor  over 
"  war  "  in  general  ;  but  it  has  conquered  over 
certain  special  kinds  of  war  in  certain  parts  of 
the  civilized  world— for  instance,  over  religious 
wars,  over  the  small  feudal  wars  of  the  Middle 


12         PACIFISM  AND  ITS  ADVERSARIES 

Ages,  over  the  wars  which  the  Vikings  waged 
for  war's  sake  or  for  the  sake  of  private  gain 
and  piracy,  partly  perhaps  even  here  in  Europe 
over  the  "  wars  of  conquest  "  ;  in  other  words 
certain  relations  have  been  deprived  of  their 
quality  of  being  causes  for  war. 

If,  for  example,  we  ask,  "  What  has  brought 
about  the  cessation  in  the  civilized  world  of 
religious  wars?  "  what  else  can  we  answer  but 
"The  pacifist  movement"?  Perhaps  an  un- 
conscious pacifist  movement,  but  still  a  pacifist 
movement,  a  recognition  which  has  slowly 
convinced  the  minds  of  all  that  it  is  wrong 
to  do  violence  to  any  one  for  the  sake  of 
his  religion,  and  that  every  one  must  have  a 
natural  right,  an  immediate  human  right,  to 
worship  his  God  in  peace  in  the  way  and  under 
the  forms  which  he  prefers. 

It  can  scarcely  be  denied,  however,  that 
medical  science  has  better  prospects  than  the 
pacifist  movement  has  of  winning  greater  and 
more  numerous  victories  in  the  near  future. 
If  the  prospects  of  the  pacifist  cause  are  less 
favourable,  the  reason,  among  others,  might 
conceivably  be  its  defects  and  mistakes,  mis- 
takes which  explain  why  it  has  not  made  more 
progress,  and  which  uncorrected  will  perhaps 
hinder  it  from  attaining  the  full  realization  of 
its  aims. 

Fixing  our  eyes  on  the  ways  and  mean*  by 


INTRODUCTION  13 

which  medical  science  has  won  its  victories, 
we  note  two  things  which  I  wish  specially  to 
emphasize. 

In  the  first  place  it  has  not  directed  its  efforts 
against  disease  in  general,  and  has  not  sought 
victory — or  it  has  at  any  rate  ceased  to  do  so — 
in  a  universal  cure,  a  panacea  like  the  phil- 
osophers' stone.  No,  it  has  directed  its  attention 
to  single  diseases — following  the  good  old  rule 
of  combating  its  enemies  one  by  one — and  its 
{means  are  manifold,  as  these  are  specialized 
from  time  to  time  in  the  medicine  on  the 
apothecary's  shelves,  in  the  knife  in  the 
surgeon's  hand,  down  to  the  hygiene  of  build- 
ings, water  supplies,  quarantine,  and  much  else. 

Secondly,  medical  science  has  reached  its 
results  in  regard  to  a  great  many  diseases,  first 
and  foremost  through  studying  their  causes,  and 
it  has  used  the  knowledge  gained  not  exclusively 
for  healing  purposes  (knowing  that  a  know- 
ledge of  the  cause  does  not  always  enable  us 
to  effect  a  cure),  but  as  a  step  to  what  is  better, 
prevention  by  removing  the  cause,  remembering 
the  old  maxim:  Cessante  causa  cessat  effectus 
("  With  the  cause  the  effect  disappears  " ). 

But  it  seems  to  me  in  reading  the  pacifist 
literature  and  the  daily  press,  and  hearing  about 
conferences  and  resolutions,  that  it  is  most 
frequently  "  war  in  general  "  which  is  the  sub- 
ject, also  that  the  means  recommended  approach 


14          PACIFISM  AND   ITS  ADVERSARIES 

the  character  of  a  panacea,  as  they  are  almost 
entirely  contained  in  the  two  words  "  arbitra- 
tion" and  "disarmament."  We  hear  less  about 
the  different  special  forms  of  war  and  about  the 
causes  of  wars.  And  yet  the  different  kinds 
of  war  must  be  prevented  in  different  ways,  and 
the  preventive  means  themselves  must  be 
different  and  many.  To  conquer  cholera  it  has 
been  necessary  to  study  buildings,  water  supply, 
scavenging,  and  food  hygiene,  communications 
and  traffic,  epidemiology,  bacteriology,  medical 
history,  clinical  and  therapeutical  treatment. 
In  the  same  way  the  pacifist  movement  must, 
if  it  is  to  reach  practical  results,  build  on  the 
study  of  economics  and  competition,  the  ques- 
tion of  taxation  and  customs,  the  law  of  patents, 
commercial  science,  politics,  expansion  and 
colonization,  immigration  and  emigration, 
naturalization  and  many  other  questions  of 
international  law  in  all  their  forms,  the  contro- 
versy regarding  the  use  of  languages,  in  the 
law-courts,  the  school,  and  the  Church.  It  must 
take  account  of  education  in  general,  freedom 
of  association  and  of  the  Press,  rights  of 
property,  laws  of  exemption,  religious  questions, 
etc.  It  appears  to  me  that  the  pacifist  cause  has 
hitherto  somewhat  neglected  these  tasks  and 
has  confined  itself  to  the  far  smaller  task  of 
fixing  rules,  limits,  and  definitions  of  violations 
of  right,  for  "  war  in  general."  It  has  en- 


INTRODUCTION  15 

deavoured  through  international  regulations  to 
determine  a  number  of  things  which  must  not 
be  done  in  war  ;  but  although  this  is  most 
desirable,  still  for  the  furtherance  of  its  aims 
it  is  of  far  more  importance  to  fix  and  determine 
what  must  not  be  done  in  times  of  peace,  and 
to  remove  in  this  way  the  causes  of  war.  It 
has  tried  to  settle  this  or  that  quarrel,  prefer- 
ably all  quarrels,  through  arbitration.  How- 
ever desirable  this  may  be,  it  should  form  only 
a  very  small  part  of  the  work  which  ought  in 
time  of  peace  to  be  directed  much  more  towards 
the  removal  of  the  causes  of  strife,  so  that  as 
little  appeal  as  possible  need  be  made  to  this 
arbitration,  which  so  easily  turns  out  to  be 
too  frail  a  weapon  at  the  decisive  moment. 

By  directing  its  efforts  more  towards  the 
removal  of  the  causes  of  war  a  better  point  of 
vantage  is  reached.  For  even  the  most  glowing 
pacifist  must  recognize  that  there  have  been 
wars  which  have  not  only  been  righteous  and 
necessary,  but  in  which  he  would  find  himself 
not  only  at  liberty  but  under  obligation  to 
take  his  part.1 

1  An  episode  at  the  International  Peace  Conference  in 
Stockholm  in  1910  does  not  exactly  endorse  these  words. 
Introducing  a  discussion  on  the  question  of  "  Justifiable 
Defence,"  Gaston  Mock  moved  a  resolution  of  which  the 
following  were  the  main  points  :  (1)  that  armed  defence 
was  justified  against  assaults  without  preceding  intima- 
tion, negotiations,  or  declaration  of  war ;  (2)  against  a 


16          PACIFISM  AND  ITS  ADVERSARIES 

To  choose  an  example  which  cannot  hurt 
any  one  we  shall  mention  the  Garibaldi 
campaign.  If  arms  had  not  been  resorted  to 
and  their  decision  called  for,  I  wonder  if  the 
Austrians  would  not  have  remained  in  Venice 
till  to-day  and  the  Bourbons  in  Naples'?  Or 
take  the  fight  for  liberty  of  the  Greeks,  the 
Serbians,  the  Roumanians,  and  the  Bulgarians. 
Or  would  the  most  enthusiastic  pacifist  wonder 
at  the  Poles  making  armed  resistance  against 
the  division  of  Poland?  War  belongs  to  the 
greatest  evils  of  humanity,  but  there  are  still 
greater  ones.  It  is  undoubtedly  a  greater  evil 

State  which  refuses  to  submit  to  arbitration  in  cases  of 
dissension ;  or  (3)  which  after  arbitration  refuses  to 
respect  it  and  commences  hostilities  in  spite  of  it.  But 
from  a  group  of  English  and  American  delegates  a 
declaration  was  made  to  the  effect  that  as  all  war  is 
contrary  to  the  highest  moral  and  religious  principles, 
therefore  wars  of  defence  are  also  to  be  condemned. 
However  firmly  they  adhered  to  this  opinion,  they  would 
not  try  to  force  on  friends  and  fellow-workers  who 
might  not  share  this  view  any  resolution  condemning 
wars  of  defence,  as  they  knew  well  that  such  a  resolution 
would  be  against  their  convictions.  They  only  requested 
in  return  that  the  others  should  respect  their  conviction 
and  should  desist  from  carrying  any  resolution  upholding 
what  they  considered  to  be  untenable,  and,  in  that  way, 
should  sanction  what  they  regarded  in  principle  as  tend- 
ing to  the  ruin  of  the  whole  peace  movement.  And  their 
representations  were  successful,  as  a  resolution  was  carried 
to  the  effect  that  the  Conference  did  not  wish  to  record 
a  decision  either  for  or  against  this  question. 


INTRODUCTION  17 

to  be  an  oppressed,  misgoverned  nation  under 
foreign  rule,  and  under  laws  of  exception,  with- 
out a  free  national  life,  without  equality  in  civil 
life,  and  subject  to  the  oppressor's  law.  And 
this  is  the  case,  if  only  because  those  conditions 
are  prolonged  and  perhaps  permanent,  while 
war  is  only  a  passing  phase.  If  such  a  nation 
has  the  chance,  the  probability,  or  perhaps  even 
the  certainty  of  gaining  an  independent  national 
existence  through  sanguinary  armed  insurrec- 
tion, ought  it  not  to  choose  war  as  the  least  evil? 

Is  it  morally  right  to  be  content  to  demand 
peace  at  any  price,  so  long  as  it  is  peace, 
regardless  of  how  right  and  justice  are  faring? 
In  these  cases  the  peace  movement  appears  to 
me  to  become  illogical  by  directing  its  efforts 
against  war  in  general  and  without  exception. 
No,  the  proper  point  of  attack  is  not  war,  but 
the  injustice  and  oppression  which  lead  to  war. 

Until  the  pacifist  movement  can  procure  for 
a  conquered  nation  real  equality  with  their 
rulers  and  the  possibility  for  a  free,  unhampered 
national  existence,  with  a  national  clergy, 
national  teachers,  judges,  and  magistrates, 
national  universities,  a  national  language,  in 
churches,  schools,  and  law-courts,  etc.,  not  till 
then  can  the  pacifist  justly  say  :  "  You  must  be 
patient  and  you  can  be  patient.  The  border- 
line which  separates  you  from  your  fellow- 
countrymen  is  practically  done  away  with,  and 


18          PACIFISM  AND   ITS  ADVERSARIES 

you  can  live  your  national  life  together  as  if 
you  were  practically  united  in  one  State." 

There  is  a  certain  ingenuousness  in  this 
attempt  to  do  away  with  wars,  "while  leaving 
their  causes  unmolested,  is  there  not?  Is  it  not 
an  insoluble  task?  As  surely  as  the  effect  can 
disappear  with  its  cause,  so  surely  does  it 
remain  When  the  cause  remains  (Persistente 
causa,  persistit  effectus).  Is  it  not  like  the 
attempt  to  do  away  with  all  prostitution  with- 
out trying  to  remedy  the  social  and  moral 
cause  of  it? 

It  must  be  granted  that  the  peace  move- 
ment as  a  whole  'cannot  fairly  be  described 
in  the  terms  now  used,  and  that  its  literature 
contains  much  that  is  valuable  and  intelligent 
in  pointing  out  these  things.  But  the  matter 
is  different  at  once  when  we  look  at  the  daily 
press,  the  public  meetings,  and  the  local  pacifist 
societies,  at  any  rate  in  my  country.  The 
pacifist  movement  is  in  a  way  divided  into 
two  sections,  the  more  academic  and  literary, 
the  more  reasonable  and  less  Utopian  section, 
and  the  broad  lay  movement  which  often  and 
in  certain  respects  is  less  reasonable  and  more 
naive,  and  which  consists  chiefly  in  inar- 
ticulate demands  for  disarmament  and  for 
compulsory  arbitration.1 

1  As  regards  pacifist  societies  and  the  lay  increment  it 
in  perhaps  not  out  of  place  to  quote  here  the  words  of 


INTRODUCTION  19 

But  as  two  such  movements  are  each  by 
itself  of  little  effect,  while  if  united  they  would 
represent  a  force  of  no  small  power,  it  is 
necessary  to  lead  the  lay  movement  up  to  the 
level  of  reasoned  discussion  and  to  direct  the 
combined  agencies  towards  a  better  aim,  or 
rather  to  mobilize  them  more  directly  against 
the  causes  of  war  than  against  war  itself. 

An  objection  will  at  once  be  put  forward 
by  many  pacifists.  But  the  pacifist  cause  will 
then  become  inextricably  confused  with  home 
politics  and  international  quarrels,  with  con- 
flicts of  nationality,  commercial  interests  and 
customs,  etc.  It  has  always  been  one  of  its 
strictest  rules  to  avoid  at  any  cost  every  appear- 
ance of  this,  and  it  will  spell  certain  ruin  to 
the  pacifist  cause  if  it  begins  to  put  its  hand 
into  such  a  hornet's  nest  and  to  take  sides  in 

Ernst  Beckmann  (the  Interparliamentary  Union,  Stock- 
holm, 1912)  :  "  The  Interparliamentary  Union  can  easily 
explain  its  origin.  It  has  its  root  in  the  so-called  pacifist 
societies.  And  this  is  a  good  parentage.  The  pacifist 
societies  may  have  made  many  mistakes ;  they  may,  in  more 
than  one  case,  have  deserved  some  of  the  contempt  which 
at  times  has  been  lavished  upon  them.  But  show  me 
the  public  movement  which  has  never  made  any  mistake. 
And  who  would  dare  to  deny  that  these  peace  societies 
have  done  good  work  by  keeping  the  banner  of  right  and 
justice  lifted  high  in  dark  times  of  blood  and  iron  before 
the  consciences  of  the  nations,  instead  of  allowing  it  to 
be  dragged  in  the  mud  by  a  blind  lust  of  war?" 


20       [PACIFISM  AND  ITS  ADVERSARIES 

the  innumerable  contentious  questions  which 
arise  between  the  nations  of  the  earth. 

We  shall  return  to  this  objection  later  on. 
In  the  meantime  let  it  be  enough  to  say  that 
the  pacifist  cause  both  can  and  must  be  con- 
tent with  laying  down  principles  and  guiding 
rules  and  with  seeking  to  instil  these  into  the 
consciousness  of  mankind.  But  for  all  that 
it  may  quite  well  try  to  avoid  mixing  itself 
up  with  the  quarrels  of  the  moment,  and  allow 
each  nation  calmly  to  draw  for  itself  practical 
applications  from  pacifist  doctrines.  And  let 
us,  then,  once  more  repeat  that  if  the  pacifist 
movement  chooses  the  attitude  of  demanding 
war  to  be  abolished  sans  phrase,  but  leaving 
its  causes  unmolested  and  unnoticed,  it  will  not 
only  be  pronouncing  but  also  be  executing  its 
own  death-warrant. 

We  certainly  often  find  in  pacifist  literature 
vaguely  voiced  generalities  which  we  are  told 
ought  to  rule  between  nations  in  times  of  peace, 
so  that  "  no  conqueror  or  autocrat  shall  be 
able  to  violate  those  principles  of  right  and 
justice  on  which  rests  the  safety  of  States  and 
the  well-being  of  nations"  (Ellen  Key). 
Occasionally  we  even  find  specific  judgments 
pronounced  against  "  deeds  of  violence  com- 
mitted in  this  land  and  in  that  land,"  but  in 
general  the  writers  just  forget  in  these  vaguely 
voiced  views  to  state  precisely  what  those  prin- 


INTRODUCTION  21 

ciples  of  right  and  justice  are  in  detail  which 
should  be  observed  in  times  of  peace,  and  how 
their  observance  would  prevent  war,  and  what 
it  is  which  makes  the  acts  of  a  ruling  nation 
here  or  there  to  be  unjustifiable  acts  of 
violence.1 

Do  not  answer  that  this  is  superfluous  be- 
cause these  principles  are  clearly  evident  to 
all,  because  no  one  could  disagree  about  them. 
The  case  is  far  otherwise.  The  most  deep- 
rooted  disagreement  exists,  even  among  well- 
meaning  and  honest  men  who  consider 
themselves  unbiased,  the  most  deep  -  seated 
disagreement  about  the  most  fundamental 
principles  of  the  relation  of  nations  to  each 
other  in  time  of  peace,  and  disagreement  not 
between  a  large  majority  on  one  side  and  a 
vanishing  minority  on  the  other,  but  a  disagree- 

1  One  of  the  first  signs  that  the  pacifist  cause  is  begin- 
ning to  open  its  eyes  to  this  task  was  seen  at  the  Scan- 
dinavian Peace  Congress  in  Christiania,  in  July  1912, 
where  the  following  resolution  was  carried  : 

"  The  seventh  Scandinavian  peace  meeting  in  Christi- 
ania declares  that  the  recognized  right  of  nations  to  live 
their  own  free  life  according  to  ideas  which  for  ages  have 
held  sway  in  the  consciousness  of  their  peoples  is  a 
fundamental  principle  of  international  law.  It,  therefore, 
requests  that  all  pacifists  should  aim  at  securing  that  this 
principle  be  recognized  by  convention  as  a  fixed  national 
law.  The  meeting  adds  in  accordance  with  this,  that 
oppressed  nations  which  consider  themselves  the  object 
of  violence  ought  to  be  given  Home  Rule." 


22          PACIFISM  AND  ITS  ADVERSARIES 

ment  where  there  are  millions  on  each  side, 
where  the  majority  and  the  leading  men  of  large 
nations  are  on  the  opposite  side  to  the  pacifists. 

Let  uc  choose  a  single  example  of  the  broad 
"  principles  of  right  and  justice  on  which  rest 
the  safety  of  States  and  the  well-being  of 
nations,"  the  question  of  the  right  of  nations 
to  the  use  of  their  mother  tongue.  Do  we 
not  find  at  once  two  views  sharply  opposed 
to  each  other?  And  have  they  not  both  been 
carried  out  in  practice  and  amply  illustrated 
in  real  life? 

The  one  holds  that  each  nation  must  have 
an  unlimited  and  distinct  right  to  the  use  of 
its  native  tongue  in  church,  in  school,  in  the 
law-court,  in  the  Press,  and  at  public  meetings, 
and  an  equally  distinct  right  to  educate  its 
children  in  their  native  language  by  the  help 
of  pastors  and  teachers  chosen  from  their 
own  midst. 

The  other  view  is  this,  that  such  a  distinct 
right  does  not  exist,  but  that  it  is  in  any  case 
limited  by  the  interest  of  the  State.1  And  when 
the  interest  of  the  State  demands  it,  it  is  right, 
nay,  it  even  becomes  a  national  duty  to  deny 
and  forbid  a  nation  the  use  of  its  mother  tongue 
in  the  school,  the  law-court,  at  public  meet- 
ings, etc.,  even  if  this  nation  numbers  millions, 
and  it  becomes  a  duty  to  educate  the  children 
1  E.g.  Johannes  Tiedje,  in  die  ChristUche  Welt,  Ib09. 


INTRODUCTION  83 

by  force  in  a  foreign  language  by  foreign 
teachers. 

To  give  another  example.  Some  consider 
the  right  of  property  inviolable  under  all 
circumstances  or,  at  any  rate,  equally  inviol- 
able for  all.  Others  consider  it  justifiable,  nay, 
even  a  national  duty,  when  the  interest  of  the 
State  demands  it,  by  laws  of  exception,  to 
encroach  on  this  right  in  the  case  of  a  certain 
class  of  people  separated  from  the  ruling  State 
by  religion  or  nationality  (Jews  in  Russia  and 
Roumania,  Poles  and  Danes  in  Germany). 

Similar  difficulties  appear  in  relation  to 
questions  of  customs.  One  country  considers 
that  a  system  of  customs  walls  and  export 
premiums  are  right  and  justifiable,  while 
another  country  considers  this  a  violation  of 
its  economic  interests,  an  unfriendly  act,  and 
a  cause  of  war. 

In  questions  of  this  kind  it  is  seldom  of 
any  use  to  speak  of  moral  rights,  because  to 
many  people  the  question  is  not  one  of  right 
but  of  might.  In  the  following  pages  we  shall 
quote  authors  who  have  written  on  these  sub- 
jects, and  who  say  openly  that  it  is  all  the 
same  to  them  on  which  side  right  or  wrong  is 
to  be  found.  Or,  as  another  author  puts  it, 
it  is  "  a  detail  "  where  the  right  is.  Such  views 
are  a  good  proof  of  the  hopelessness  of  wish- 
ing to  abolish  war  and  to  introduce  disarma- 


24          PACIFISM  AND   ITS  ADVERSARIES 

merit  before  the  causes  of  war  have  been  dealt 
with.  The  arms  of  the  pacifist  cause,  peaceful 
argument  and  earnest  upholding  of  right  and 
justice,  must  of  a  necessity  fall  to  the  ground 
without  effect  before  a  standpoint  such  as  this. 
No,  first  of  all  a  great  and  troublesome  piece 
of  work  must  be  done  to  bring  home  to  man- 
kind the  idea  that  right  and  justice  must  be  the 
guiding  principles  for  nations  as  well  as  for 
individuals  in  the  treatment  of  each  other,  and 
that  this  right  and  justice  must  be  equal  for 
all.  For,  however  elementary  this  principle 
may  appear,  still  it  is  not  generally  acknow- 
ledged, and  far  less  is  it  the  foundation  and 
guiding  principle  for  the  politics  of  States,  nor 
will  it  become  so  for  a  long  time  yet.1 

1  Arthur  Christensen,  "  Politics  and  Mass  Morals," 
Copenhagen,  1911,  p.  94  :  "  State  morals  are  mummified 
ancient  morals  believing  themselves  in  Olympic  elevation 
above  all  development ;  they  are  the  factor  of  inertia  in 
the  history  of  the  masses  ;  public  opinion  is  the  energy." 
Page  97  :  "The  feeling  of  nationality  rests  on  the  absolute 
suspicion  which  animals,  barbarians,  and  nations  harbour 
against  each  other,  and  as  regards  nations  the  experience 
of  the  past  thousands  of  years  has  fully  justified  this." 
Page  199  :  "  To  suppose  that  a  State  on  some  occasion  or 
other  had  assisted  a  neighbouring  State  for  nothing,  from 
motives  of  pure  human  benevolence,  would  be  to  offend 
the  politicians  of  the  said  State,  while  an  insinuation  that 
they  had  smartly  cheated  their  neighbour  in  spite  of 
indignant  official  dementis  would  more  likely  be  regarded 
as  a  compliment  to  their  intelligence," 


INTRODUCTION  25 

It  is  only  a  short  time  ago  that  one  of  the 
most  prominent  statesmen  of  Europe  before 
the  tribunal  of  history  took  upon  himself  the 
responsibility  for  acts  on  the  part  of  his 
Government  which  are  in  most  flagrant  oppo- 
sition to  this  idea.1 

In  dealing  with  the  views  of  such  persons 
we  must  be  content  to  point  out  that  right 
and  justice,  in  virtue  of  an  inviolable  law  of 
nature,  are  the  most  useful  and  most  advan- 
tageous means,  while  transgressions  of  these 
principles  on  the  other  hand  will  always  bring 
punishment  for  the  transgressor— even  more 
in  the  relations  between  nations  than  in 
those  between  individuals.  It  must  thus  be 
the  next  task  of  the  pacifist  cause  to  ex- 
plain in  detail  what  right  and  justice 
demand  in  questions  of  religion,  nationality, 
economics,  and  politics.  For  it  is  just  in 
these  matters  that  millions  of  people,  in 
perfect  good  faith  and  in  the  full  conviction  of 
being  right,  maintain  ideas  which  from  an 
objective  standpoint  are  both  unjust  and  wrong. 

Before  this  is  achieved  it  is  hopeless  to  cry 
out  against  war.  When  it  is  achieved  wars 
will  perhaps  disappear  of  themselves.  If  it 
is  not  achieved  the  work  against  war  is  hope- 
less ;  for  as  we  have  said  before,  Persistente 

1  Fiirst  von  Billow,  in  the  German  Reichstag,  Novem- 
ber 26,  1907, 


26          PACIFISM  AND  ITS  ADVERSARIES 

causa,  persistit  effectus.  Before  we  can  hope 
to  abolish  war  some  agreement  must  be  reached 
concerning  peace,  and  the  right  and  duties  of 
the  nations  in  time  of  peace.  For  war  is  like 
lightning,  a  final  and  unavoidable  manifesta- 
tion of  an  accumulation  of  force  which  has 
been  steadily  growing  for  some  time— although 
it  may  also  at  times  be  a  result  of  the  stupidity 
of  statesmen.  As  it  is  impossible  to  prevent 
lightning  from  flashing  if  the  electric  force  is 
not  divided,  so  it  will  be  impossible  to  prevent 
war  if  one  does  not  begin  the  work  of  clearing 
away  its  causes. 

We  shall  now  examine  the  practical  causes 
of  war  and  discuss  the  means  of  their  pre- 
vention, and  at  the  same  time  try  to  specify 
the  "  rights  of  peace  " — in  short,  examine  the 
past  activity  of  the  pacifist  movement,  its  results, 
its  means  and  methods,  its  prospects  and  possi- 
bilities, and  from  this  construct  its  programme. 


CHAPTER    I 

ECONOMIC    WARS 

HERE  we  are  dealing  with  one  of  the  central 
facts  of  the  case,  with  that  cause  of  war 
which,  during  the  present  generation,  has  been 
more  prominent  than  any  other,  and  which 
undoubtedly  will  become  more  and  more  so 
in  the  future,  while  the  other  causes  of  war 
will  recede  more  and  more  into  the  back- 
ground. 

The  great  nations  have  carried  on  war  and 
will  continue  to  carry  on  war  first  and  foremost 
for  economic  supremacy,  for  "  a  place  in  the 
sun,"  for  material  well-being.  (We  say  the 
great  nations — for  on  the  whole  the  small 
nations  do  not  any  longer  start  wars.  War 
history  is  at  an  end  as  regards  the  Scandi- 
navian countries,  Holland,  Belgium,  Switzer- 
land, etc.  They  may  perhaps  have  to  fight 
for  their  existence  against  the  Great  Powers 
or  during  a  collision  of  the  Great  Powers,  but 
none  of  them  will  any  longer  be  able  to 
cause  or  call  forth  a  war.  They  all  without 
exception  understand  that  for  them  to  start  a 

8T 


38          PACIFISM  AND  ITS  ADVERSARIES 

war  would  be  to  risk  their  whole  existence  in 
the  most  foolish  manner.  No  danger  of  war 
will  ever  threaten  from  their  side.) 

This  fight  for  "  a  place  in  the  sun  "  is,  how- 
ever, by  no  means  confined  solely  to  times 
of  war ;  it  is  being  waged  incessantly  with 
the  so-called  arms  of  peace — that  is,  partly 
by  the  general  competition  between  nations, 
especially  in  industry  (e.g.  the  competition 
among  German,  Russian,  and  English  merchants 
and  seekers  of  concessions  in  China,  Africa, 
Persia,  etc.,  among  German,  Russian,  and 
English  banks  in  Constantinople,  Mesopotamia, 
and  Persia,  among  the  engineers  of  the 
different  nations,  etc.),  partly  and  chiefly  by 
all  the  means  that  can  be  included  under 
the  name  of  "  customs  politics." 

In  reality  every  day,  year  after  year,  a  stub- 
born and  never  ceasing  war  is  going  on  among 
the  nations  with  regard  to  economic  supremacy. 
The  weapons  of  this  war  are  import  duties, 
which  exclude  foreign  goods  ;  export  duties, 
which  bind  the  raw  materials  to  the  homeland 
and  make  them  dearer  to  the  competitors ; 
export  premiums,  which  are  intended  to  give 
the  home  goods  an  advantage  in  the  foreign 
market,  or  even  in  the  market  of  the  competitor 
himself  (e.g.  German  sugar  in  England) ;  com- 
mercial treaties,  which  buy  one  advantage  by 
granting  a  favour  in  return  ;  subventions  for 


ECONOMIC  WARS  29 

shipping,  railways,  and  banking  concerns,  and 
the  State  which  is  most  astute  and  far-seeing, 
least  conscientious  and  most  unscrupulous  in 
this  fight  will  carry  home  the  prize. 

It  in  no  way  affects  the  validity  of  this 
principle  that  the  side  which  wins  may  use 
its  profits,  and  more  than  its  profits,  for  an 
unproductive  purpose,  such  as  for  military  out- 
lays which  make  the  whole  gain  illusory.  Such 
a  nation  has  always  the  satisfaction  of  not 
having  to  pay  for  its  military  expenses  by 
itself,  but  of  making  the  competitor  share  them. 
An  English  Member  of  Parliament  said  recently 
that  England,  during  the  last  generation,  not 
only  had  had  to  bear  the  expense  of  her  own 
Fleet,  but  that  she  had  had  to  pay  Germany  as 
well,  owing  to  an  unfavourable  commercial 
balance  caused  by  a  short-sighted  customs 
policy. 

Only  when  these  weapons  of  peace  do  not 
suffice  (as  when  the  competitor  knows  how 
to  use  them  himself)  need  the  sword  be  resorted 
to,  if  one  has  confidence  enough.  Thus  Japan 
broke  down  by  force  of  arms  the  Russian 
customs  walls  around  Manchuria  with  the  claim 
for  "  the  open  door  " — which  door  she  was  to 
close  carefully  behind  her  once  she  had  got 
inside.  Thus,  perhaps,  will  England  feel  com- 
pelled to  draw  the  sword  to  break  the  fiscal 
ring  which  German  customs  politics  have  forged 


30          PACIFISM  AND  ITS  ADVERSARIES 

around  her,  to  maintain  the  world's  supremacy 
for  the  Anglo-Saxons,  and  to  prevent  the 
Germans  from  taking  the  lead  instead. 

Where  do  we  here  see  prospects  of  the  end 
of  war?  Human  covetousness  will  never  die 
out,  and  shall  we  ever  see  politicians  among 
us  who  will  not  think  that  they  are  acting 
aright  in  gaining  an  advantage  for  their  own 
country  at  the  cost  of  another?1  Failure  to 
do  so  will  certainly  ruin  their  political  career, 
and  as  certainly  will  they  quickly  disappear 
from  the  scene.  As  long  as  it  is  said,  even  in 
Gladstone's  own  country,  "  My  country— right 
or  wrong  !  "  so  long  are  peaceful,  unresisting 
endurance  of  wrong  and  voluntary  martyrdom 
unlikely  to  be  represented  in  international 
politics. 

Is  there,  then,  nowhere  a  prospect  of  a  breach 
in  this  circulus  uitiosus,  of  a  break  in  this  screw 
without  an  end?  Yes,  there  is  a  magic  word 
which  at  one  breath  makes  an  end  of  it  all 
and  opens  prospects  of  eternal  peace,  or,  at 
any  rate,  of  the  removal  of  this  powerful  and 
predominating  cause  of  war — Free  trade. 

The  author  of  these  lines  confesses  himself 
an  enthusiastic  adherent  of  Free  trade,  and 
he  will  try  in  the  following  pages  to  convince 

x  The  world  has  seen  such  a  politician,  Gladstone,  but 
this  feature  of  his  political  outlook  was  ever  the  cause  of 
hie  defeats  as  it  was  of  his  retirement  into  private  life. 


ECONOMIC  WARS  31 

the  reader  of  the  blessings  which  Free  trade 
would  bring — that  is,  universal  Free  trade,  hold- 
ing sway  over  the  whole  planet.  Now,  I  may 
as  well  make  the  remark  at  once,  to  the  con- 
sternation of  the  unintelligent  and  superficial 
reader,  but  to  the  reassurance  of  the  wise  and 
unbiased,  that  at  present  in  my  own  country  I 
am  an  enthusiastic  and  convinced  Protectionist. 

Economic  wars  will  disappear  in  that 
moment  when  it  is  generally  recognized  that 
the  so-called  peaceful  weapons  (import  and 
export  duties,  export  premiums,  etc.)  are  at 
least  as  objectionable  and  preposterous,  as  hurt- 
ful and  sanguinary,  as  wrong  and  destructive 
as  the  polished  steel  of  the  soldier  ;  that  the  loss 
of  life,  of  comfort,  and  of  happiness  which  an 
unsuccessful  war  inflicts  on  a  nation  is  in  no 
way  greater  than  that  caused  by  an  unfortunate 
customs  policy. 

Only  the  method  is  different.  War  means 
shedding  of  blood,  sundered  limbs  and  bodies  ; 
tariff  defeat  means  children  with  rickets, 
atrophy,  anaemic,  worn-out  women,  hungry, 
overworked  men,  and,  what  is  worse,  men  full 
of  hatred  and  bitterness  and  discontent.  (Their 
dissatisfaction  and  anger  are  increased  by  their 
ignorance,  being  so  often  directed  against  the 
wrong  person,  not  against  the  foreign  country 
which  starves  them  out,  and  against  the  leaders 
and  politicians  who  have  brought  about  the 


32          PACIFISM  AND  ITS  ADVERSAEIES 

tariff  defeat,  but  perhaps  just  against  those  very 
people  who  see  the  matter  in  its  proper  light.) 
Here,  as  elsewhere,  it  holds  true  that  when  the 
manger  is  empty  the  horses  bite,  and  that  an 
economic  defeat,  as  well  as  a  military  one,  is 
followed  by  internal  party  controversies. 

For  this  reason  no  statesman  should  expose 
his  nation  to  this  kind  of  defeat  any  more  than 
to  military  defeat.  He  should  rather  secure  a 
fiscal  victory.  And  his  efforts  in  this  direction 
— well,  these  must  consist  in  this,  that  he  on 
his  side  should  for  his  own  nation  build  up, 
if  he  can,  still  higher  tariff  walls,  or  at  any 
rate  a  still  more  crafty  system  of  customs, 
duties,  bounties,  subventions,  etc.  Thus  is 
created  the  circulus  uitiosus.  For  in  the  course 
of  a  couple  of  years,  or  at  the  expiration  of 
existing  commercial  treaties,  the  competitor 
begins  to  alter  his  rules  and  his  system.  Hence 
those  continual  changes,  those  recurring  debates 
on  customs,  and  those  eternal  international  dis- 
cussions about  commercial  treaties  which  are 
never  of  long  duration.  In  this  way  the  nations, 
in  their  mutual  intercourse,  offer  the  spectacle 
of  cattle-dealers  or  stock  exchange  speculators, 
who  try  continually  to  get  the  advantage  over 
each  other. 

Therefore  England  perhaps  now  finds  herself 
compelled  in  self-defence  to  abandon  her  old, 
honourable  Free  trade  policy,  and  to  begin 


ECONOMIC   WARS  33 

competing  with  the  other  nations  by  Protec- 
tionist laws — all  to  avoid  being  robbed  by 
foreign  nations  and  being  taxed  by  them — that 
is,  if  she  does  not  prefer  to  draw  the  sword  to 
destroy  this  invisible  yoke. 

To  all  this  Free  trade  would  quickly  put  an 
end,  supposing  that  it  were  carried  into  practice 
by  all  the  nations  of  the  earth.  Every  one 
who  thinks  out  the  matter  thoroughly  must 
come  to  the  conclusion  that  all  nations  taken 
together  would  be  happier  with  universal  Free 
trade  than  with  the  present  race  for  Protec- 
tion. Free  trade  might  perhaps,  at  the  moment, 
bring  loss  to  some  nation  or  another  on  some 
point  or  another,  and  destroy  some  industry 
or  another  which  does  not  grow  out  of  its 
natural  soil.  But,  in  the  long  run,  and  in  the 
general  interest,  the  blessings  of  universal  Free 
trade  would  assert  themselves  and  would  silence 
all  opposition  because  they  would  prove  so  self- 
evident. 

Protection  is  in  the  last  analysis  only  a 
hindrance  and  a  source  of  trouble  in  all  the 
affairs  of  commerce  and  industry,  and  it  is  in 
itself  a  source  of  expense,  demanding  a  large 
staff  of  officials,  etc.  It  may  enrich  one  nation 
at  the  expense  of  another,  but  it  can  never 
enrich  the  world  as  a  whole.  Energetic  Pro- 
tection may  perhaps  enrich  the  Germans  or 
the  Americans,  but  never  humanity  as  a  whole, 

3 


34          PACIFISM  AND  ITS  ADVERSARIES 

and  it  can  only  enrich  Germans  and  Americans 
at  the  expense  of  other  nations,  and,  therefore, 
also  only  for  a  limited  time.  This  is  immedi- 
ately self-evident  so  long  as  no  one  will  get  up 
and  maintain  that  Protection  in  itself  creates 
yalues,  that  it  is  in  itself  productive.1  If  this 
should  be  the  case,  from  whence  should  the 
enrichment  come  to  the  nation  which  profits 
by,  Protection  except  at  the  expense  of  other 
nations?  We  prove  thereby  that  Protection 
is  a  wrong  done  by  one  nation  towards  another, 
to  which  the  reply  is  a  new  and  preferably  a 
greater  wrong.  This  is  implied  in  the  idea 
of  Protection  itself.  If  all  nations  all  over  the 
world  were  to  introduce  a  system  of  Protec- 
tion which  secured  equal  benefits  for.  all  so 
that  the  financial  result  would  profit  no  one, 
and  cause  loss  to  no  one,  then  Protection  would 
become  illusory  and  its  result  would  be  only 
the  cost  and  trouble  which  it  brings. 

But  universal  Free  trade  would  give  the  same 
result,  only  without  the  trouble  'and  the  cost. 
Protection  only  gets  meaning  and  purpose  when 
it  permits  one  nation  to  profit  at  the  expense 
of  another  .2  One  thing  would  be  procured 
through  universal  Free  trade,  namely  a  fair 

1  Leaving  customs  officials  out  of  the  question. 

2  I  do  not,  of  course,  mean  that  universal  Free  trade 
would  be  synonymous  with  equal  wealth  all  over  the 
earth.    There  will  always  be  countries  which  are  richly 


ECONOMIC  WARS  35 

opportunity  for  all.  It  would  make  it  a  matter 
of  course  that,  just  as  in  a  football  match', 
sun  and  wind  are  equally  divided,  and  as  a 
match  is  declared  invalid  if  the  one  side  has 
gained  an  unfair  advantage  at  the  expense  of 
the  other,  such  also  ought  to  be  the  guiding 
principle  in  economic  international  competition. 
Why  should  it  be  more  lawful  for  one  nation  to 
take  advantage  of  the  other  than  for  one  foot- 
ball team  to  take  unfair  advantage  of  another? 
In  an  individual  nation  it  is  always  regarded 
as  a  matter  of  course  that  one  merchant  is 
placed  on  equal  terms  with  another  as  regards 
all  the  conditions  of  commerce.  Why  does 
the  matter  alter  at  once  when  the  two  merchants 
belong  to  different  nations? 

At  present  when  the  question  is  asked,  "  Shall 
a  German  merchant  not  have  permission  to 
sell  his  goods  in  England,  and  an  English 

endowed  and  countries  which  are  poor  by  the  hand  of 
Nature ;  although  history  on  every  page  shows  us  that 
this  element  of  Nature  is  by  no  means  a  decisive  factor 
in  the  wealth  of  a  nation.  We  daily  see  tropical  peoples 
in  greatest  need  though  living  in  the  midst  of  the  most 
luxurious  wealth  of  Nature,  and  vice  versa  we  see  people 
in  poorly  endowed  districts,  in  rough,  harsh  climes,  reach 
great  wealth.  For  we  shall  always  have  able  and  useless 
nations,  higher  and  lower  races,  wiser  and  less  intellectual 
peoples.  The  equality  of  nations  is  also  economically 
as  much  a  Utopia  as  that  of  individual  men.  Finally, 
Protection,  too,  has  its  international  results. 


36          PACIFISM  AND  ITS  ADVERSARIES 

merchant  his  goods  in  Germany?"  then  we  may 
expect  the  answer :  "  No,  by  'Jove  !  he  shall 
not.  Let  every  nation  look  after  its  own — 
favour  its  own — and  tax  the  others."  As  the 
world  and  mankind  are,  this  is  the  only  possible 
and  therefore  the  only  just  arrangement.  This 
is  a  possible  answer,  and  represents  a  stand- 
point which  can  be  discussed,  attacked,  and 
defended. 

But  if  you  are  a  pacifist  you  cannot  say 
anything  of  the  kind.  The  man  who  holds, 
this  view  cannot  at  the  same  time  call  himself 
a  friend  of  peace  if  there  is  any  logic  in  him. 
For  his  'standpoint  is  one  of  the  most  power- 
ful causes  of  war.  I  shall,  therefore,  join  the 
ranks  of  those  Free  trade  theorists  who  look 
upon  universal  Free  trade  as  a  moral  demand 
— a  natural  right.  They  put  it  forth  as  the 
only  ethically  defensible  claim,  and  'raise  it 
up  to  rank  among  "human  rights."  On  the 
other  hand,  they  brand  Protection  as  the  war 
of  all  against  all,  as  an  infinite  chain  of  the 
attempts  of  one  to  create  an  unfair  advantage 
over  the  other. 

But,  if  it  is  clear  to  us  how  small  weight 
these  arguments  have  in  the  world,  to  what  a 
degree  they  are  "  imponderabilia,"  then  we  must 
undoubtedly  rather  seek  to  impress  upon  man- 
kind that  universal  Free  trade  is  also  the  most 
useful,  the  best,  and  the  most  profitable  policy, 


ECONOMIC  WARS  37 

both  for  the  whole  of  humanity  and  for  the 
individual  nation,  that  the  advantage  which  one 
nation  occasionally  can  gain  over  others  is  in 
the  first  place  always  temporary,  and,  secondly, 
is  often  dearly  bought  and  illusory,  and,  thirdly, 
often  brings  grim  revenge  later  on  when  the 
opponent  gets  on  the  top.  Thus  the  net  result 
of  Protection  when  we  make  up  the  account 
all  along  the  line  amounts  only  to  the  cost  and 
trouble  attached  to  its  maintenance  and  de- 
mands, and  the  bitterness,  anger,  and  hatred 
which  it  creates  between  and  within  nations. 
A  certain  degree  of  recognition  of  these 
facts  is  no  doubt  to  be  found  among  peoples 
and  Governments.  For  it  must  be  to  such  a 
recognition  that  we  owe  the  fact  that  it  has 
actually  been  arranged  by  international  agree- 
ment to  make  Free  trade  compulsory  in  certain 
territories  which  are  administered  under  joint 
control.  In  no  other  way  can  we  explain  an 
agreement  so  remarkable  as  the  Congo  Act. 
When,  in  the  year  1885,  the  Congo  State  was 
established  and  recognized  at  an  International 
Conference  in  Berlin,  at  which  all  the  Great 
Powers  of  Europe  were  represented  along  with 
the  United  States,  the  Scandinavian  countries, 
Holland,  Belgium,  Spain,  Portugal,  and  Turkey, 
those  States  also  gave  their  sanction  to  the 
Congo  Act.  In  this  Act  it  is  declared  that 
in  all  the  territories  of  the  present  Congo  State 


38         PACIFISM  AND  ITS  ADVERSARIES 

the    commerce   of    •"  all    nations    shall    enjoy, 
perfect  liberty,"  that  the  movements  of  shipping 
for  coastal  and  inland  traffic  should  be  open 
to  all  nations,  and  that  all  unequal  treatment 
as  regards  either  ships  or  goods  should  be  pro- 
hibited ;    that  no  trading  monopolies  or  privi- 
leges whatsoever  should  be  granted,  and  that 
foreigners  should,  without  exception,  enjoy,  the 
same  rights  and  privileges  as  the  native  inhabi- 
tants in  everything  that  concerned  the  protection 
of  their  persons  and  properties,  the  acquisition 
and  transfer  of  their  movable  and  immovable 
possessions,   and   the  practice  of  their  trade. 
Further,  the  Congo  State  was  also  declared  to 
be  neutral  in  times  of  war,  even  in  the  event 
of  war  in  which  its   Sovereign  or  protecting 
State  might  be  involved.    And  all  the  signatories 
bound  themselves  before  a  third  party  to  render 
their  good  offices  to  secure  that  all  territories 
of  the  Congo  State  should,  while  war  lasted, 
be  under  the  laws  of  neutrality,  and  be  con- 
sidered   as    if    they    did    not    belong    to    the 
belligerent  State ;    consequently,   also,   that  in 
time  of  war  the  shipping  of  all  nations,  whether 
neutral  or  belligerent,  should  be  free  to  trade 
on  the   Congo,   its   branches,    tributaries,    and 
outlets,  as  well  as  on  the  shores  lying  opposite 
to  these.      Commerce   should   likewise   remain 
free  on  the  roads,  railways,  lakes,  and  canals 
mentioned  in  paragraphs   15-16. 


ECONOMIC  WARS  39 

There  exists,  thfen,  a  fortunate  region  of  the 
world  where  all  the  ideas  and  demands  of  the 
peace  movement  have  already  been  carried  into 
practice,  where  they  have  absolute  Free  trade, 
where  the  "  rights  of  peace  are  recognized " 
(see  later),  and  where  war  is  done  away  with 
— in  fact,  complete  international  agreement. 
(Unfortunately,  this  happy  land  lies  in  Africa 
— and  Africa  is  unfortunately  far  away.  But  is 
it,  then,  quite  Utopian  to  imagine  that  agree- 
ments like  these  might  gradually  be  extended 
so  as  to  hold  good  in  other  parts  of  the  earth', 
and  at  last  all  over  the  world?)  And  it  is 
sufficiently  striking  that  the  contracting  Powers, 
in  a  clear  knowledge  of  the  economic  conditions 
and  of  the  overwhelming  importance  of  the 
tariff  question,  placed  in  the  forefront  of  all 
their  pacifist  decisions  the  demand  for  Free 
trade  and  for  economic  equality  for  all  nations. 

If  what  we  have  said  is  right  or  even  partly, 
right,  how  is  it  possible  that  the  peace  move- 
ment should  not  give  the  question  of  Free  trade 
versus  Protection  a  very  exceptional  amount 
of  attention?  Must  not  every  pacifist,  in  other, 
words,  become  an  apostle  of  Free  trade,  recog- 
nizing that  even  the  smallest  progress  in  the 
direction  of  Free  trade  has  greater  pacifist 
importance  than  many  conferences  and  inter- 
parliamentary meetings  ? 

The  task  of  the  Free  trade    movement  is 


40          PACIFISM  AND   ITS  ADVERSARIES 

difficult — but  the  same  may  be  said  of  the  whole 
peace  movement.  And  if  its  chief  aim  (military, 
disarmament)  is  not  hopeless,  then  neither  is 
this.  It  is  at  any  rate  easier  to  imagine 
economic  than  military  disarmament  as  an 
accomplished  fact.  Apart  from  the  former  the 
latter  is  hopeless.  Economic  disarmament  is 
the  prime  condition  of  military  disarmament. 
And,  therefore,  the  pacifist  must  preach  Free 
trade  ;  for  Protection  is  War. 


NATIONAL    WARS 

NATIONAL  quarrels,  even  more  than  economic 
rivalry,  are  the  predominant  causes  of  war, 
and  such  quarrels  have  proved  the  cause  of 
nearly  every  war  in  our  time. 

When  we  shall  maintain  in  the  following 
chapter  as  a  moral  principle,  as  the  necessary 
foundation  of  the  peace  movement,  that  no 
nation  has  a  right  to  rule  over  another,  but 
that  every  one,  even  a  small  nation,  has  a 
Divine  right  to  live  its  free  national  life,  then 
we  shall  add  at  once  that  this  principle  in  its 
unconditional  force  is  valid  only  for  self-con- 
scious and  developed  nations.  It  cannot  be 
applied,  for  instance,  to  the  expansion  policy 
of  Russia  in  Asia,  because  this  is  chiefly  con- 
cerned with  undeveloped  peoples  which  have 
not  yet  reached  the  stage  of  national  self-con- 
sciousness. Even  if  Russia  owes  these  every 
rightful  consideration,  still  it  is  clear  that  other 
laws  and  a  different  moral  valuation  must  hold 
in  the  relation  of  Russia  to  Finns  and  Poles 
than  in  their  relation  to  Buretes,  Samoyedes, 

41 


42          PACIFISM  AND  ITS  ADVERSARIES 

and  Kalmucks — or  in  the  relation  of  the  white 
men  to  Kaffirs  and  Hottentots  in  Africa. 

For,  just  as  the  principles  of  nationality  and 
of  popular  self-government  cannot  be  used  as 
standards  of  valuation  in  the  history,  of  past 
epochs,  where  these  ideas  were  not  in  existence, 
so  also  are  they  inapplicable  to  undeveloped 
and  nationally  dormant  peoples  in  whom  these 
notions  have  not  yet  been  awakened. 

But  as  soon  as  we  can  come  to  our  own 
time  and  to  developed  self-conscious  nations, 
then  the  great  principle  must  be  adhered  to 
in  all  its  strength :  the  right  of  every  nation 
(or  part  of  a  nation)  to  self-government  and 
political  independence  (or  connection  with  the 
mother  nation ) ;  or  at  any  rate— as  the 
minimum  demand  —  the  equal  right  of  the 
nations  in  relation  to  each  other  within  the 
same  State  in  respect  of  political  status,  re- 
ligion, language,  and  economic  freedom,  and 
of  equality,  before  the  law,  regardless  of  nation- 
ality. This  is  a  claim— a  postulate,  not  a  dogma 
or  any  universally  recognized  moral  precept, 
but  as  stated,  only  a  claim  which  certainly  is 
acknowledged  in  many  quarters,  but  which  also 
meets  with  opposition  and  denial  among  other 
and  influential  authorities.  It  is  not  only  put 
aside  in  practice,  in  daily  life,  in  legislation, 
and  in  administration  in  many  places  in  the 
face  of  millions  of  people,  but  it  is  also  dis- 


NATIONAL  WARS  43 

puted  theoretically  in  the  very  midst  'of  the 
Christian  world  by  academic  circles  in  out- 
standing "  Kultur  States."  ' 

Let  us  in  passing  draw  attention  to  the  fact 
that  this  claim  has  always  and  without  excep- 
tion been  acknowledged  and  advocated  by  all 
nations  on  their  own  behalf  ;  opposition  to  it 
is  always  in  respect  of  the  other  side  only. 
Xhere  are  in  literature  plenty  of  theoretical 
refutations  of  the  justice  of  this  claim  in  rela- 
tion to  other  nations,  but  as  far  as  I  know  none 
in  regard  to  one's  own  country. 

And  it  is  strange  to  see  the  same  nation 
energetically  demanding  that  this  claim  should 
be  enforced  in  its  own  interests,  while  at  the 
same  time  it  refuses  to  concede  it  to  others  ;  on 
the  one  hand  feeling  deeply  wronged  because 
the  claim  is  refused — and  yet  wronging  others 
by  refusing  it.  Examples  are  found  in  the 
attitude  of  the  Poles  to  the  Ruthenians  in  Galicia 
on  the  one  hand,  and  to  Germans  and  Russians 
on  the  other  ;  in  the  behaviour  of  Magyars 
to  Germans  and  to  Slavs  ;  in  that  of  the  pan- 
Germans  to  foreign  people  under  German  rule, 
and  to  Germans  in  foreign  States,  etc. 

Still,  although  this  claim  is  not  universally 

1  E.g.  Herr  Neue  Bahnen,  "  Der  Polenpolitik,"  Berlin, 
1903 ;  "  Ceterum  censeo,"  pamphlet,  Leipzig,  1902,  von 
Dr.  Georg  M.  Metz ;  Dr.  F.  Winterstein,  "  Polnische 
Auferstehung,"  Lissa,  1907. 


44          PACIFISM  AND   ITS  ADVERSARIES 

acknowledged,  and  has  not  won  acceptance 
everywhere,  it  will  at  any  rate  not  miss  recog- 
nition in  pacifist  circles,  or  from  people  who 
on  the  whole  are  interested  in  the  limitation 
or  elimination  of  wars.  It  will  be  logically 
necessary  for  pacifists  to  recognize  it  because 
its  victorious  application  would  have  most 
important  results  in  promoting  the  causes  of 
peace,  while  its  surrender  will  naturally  give 
rise  to  wars,  and  will  continue  to  do  so  in  spite 
of  all  imaginable  peace  efforts. 

It  will  also  become  logically  acceptable  and 
recognizable  by  every  one  who  accepts  in 
private  and  individual  relationships  the  moral 
axiom  "  Do  not  do  to  others  what  you  do 
not  wish  that  others  should  do  to  you."  The 
world  is,  however,  not  governed  by  logic,  but 
by  interest.  And  it  is  indeed  a  fortunate  fact 
that  the  claim  indicated  is  so  entirely  in  the 
interest  of  the  peace  movement  that,  so  long 
as  it  is  not  respected,  all  peace  efforts  are 
utterly  Utopian,  foolish,  and  without  meaning. 
And  if  the  peace  movement  is  to  achieve  any- 
thing and  is  to  be  taken  seriously,  it  must  direct 
its  efforts  towards  the  recognition  and  realiza- 
tion of  this  claim  everywhere.1 

1  One  must  be  prepared  to  find  that  such  a  claim  as 
this  will  meet,  if  not  theoretical,  at  least  practical 
opposition  even  from  right-thinking  and,  indeed,  from 
Christian  people,  because  national  idiosyncrasies  more 


NATIONAL  WARS  45 

Some  men  may  love  war,  may  welcome  its 
recurrence,  and  may  regard  it  as  an  indispens- 
able factor  in  the  life  of  nations,  as  certain 
authors  tell  us.  In  this  case  there  can  be  no 
point  in  attempting  to  reconcile  national  idio- 
syncrasies. But  if  we  want  wars  to  cease, 
and  especially  national  wars,  then  there  cannot 
be  any  doubt  that  there  are  logically  only  two 
ways,  two  means,  which  can  be  considered 
of  reaching  this  aim.  Of  these  the  first  is  the 
best,  and  must  first  be  realized  before  the  second 
can  be  carried  out. 

(a)  The  first  means  (the  realization  of  which 
at  the  time  of  the  publication  of  my  book 

than  anything  else  blind  people  and  prevent  them  from 
seeing  clearly.  It  is  true  about  many  otherwise  sensible 
and  thoughtful  people  what  a  German  author  (Schovalter, 
cit.  Ammundsen  in  die  Christliche  Welt,  1909)  says 
about  the  Englishman  :  "  He  is  entirely  lacking  in  self- 
consciousness  in  questions  which  concern  his  politics, 
because  he  is  convinced  from  the  first  that  Providence 
has  made  his  people  the  noblest  of  all  the  nations,  and 
has  given  it  charge  of  the  education  of  the  rest  of 
humanity.  It  is  quite  impossible  to  convince  him  that 
his  people  can  do  wrong,  because  he  at  the  outset  is  sure 
that  such  wrong  does  not  exist.  ('  My  country,  right 
or  wrong.')  "  But  many  Germans  (Pan-Germans)  have 
quite  the  same  point  of  view  regarding  their  nation,  and 
maintain  it  in  public  (e.g.  in  their  relation  to  the  Poles, 
Czechs,  etc.).  Compare  also  Gruntvig's  view  of  the 
Danish  people  as  the  people  "  after  God's  own  heart." 

Excellent  examples   of    such    blindness  in   Christian 
people  are  specially  to  be  found  in  the  polemic  carried 


46          PACIFISM  AND   ITS  ADVERSARIES 

might  be  considered  very  improbable,  but  which 
now  perhaps  can  be  the  outcome  of  the  World- 
IWar)  is  this,  that  the  political  borders  every- 
where must  be  brought  into  (harmony  with  the 
national  ones.  When  the  people  who  feel 
bound  together  as  a  nation  get  permission  to 
live  together  as  a  nation  within  the  same  State, 
then  all  national  conflicts  will  cease. 

At  first  sight  this  seems  a  very  revolutionary 
thought,  that  the  borders  of  States  and  their 
extent  should  be  decided  no  longer  by  politi- 
cal, geographical,  historical,  military,  and  a 
thousand  other  reasons,  but  by,  the  feeling  of 
sympathy  of  individuals. 

But  on  closer  reflection  it  will  appear  that 

on  in  die  Christliche  Welt,  in  1909,  between  Professor 
V.  Ammundsen,  in  Copenhagen,  and  the  editor  of  the 
magazine,  Professor  Rade,  and  subsequently  Johs.  Tiedje, 
now  Free  Church  pastor  in  Koenigsberg.  I  shall  only 
repeat  Professor  Rade's  remarks  :  "  When  the  course  of 
the  world's  history  has  brought  about  this  condition  [that 
Northern  Sleswig  is  German]  then  no  moral  judgment  in 
the  world  dare  brand  this  fact  as  immoral "  ;  and  Tiedje's, 
that  "Northern  Sleswig  has  a  life  interest  in  the  self- 
maintenance  of  Germany  " — i.e.  the  Kiel  Canal.  "  But 
this  strategical  reason  is  directly  a  moral  and  a  Christian 
principle  for  a  people  who  wish  for  an  honourable  peace." 
(One  must  remember  here  that  the  Kiel  Canal  is  55  kilo- 
metres south  of  Flensborg  and  120  kilometres  south  of 
the  Danish  border.)  The  United  States  Canal  zone  at 
Panama  is  only  10  kilometres.  See  also  the  footnote  in 
the  supplement  ("  Against  the  Barbarians  "). 


NATIONAL  WARS  47 

the  presence  of  this  feeling  has  at  all  timles 
been  the  most  powerful  factor  in  the  building 
up  of  a  State,  as  its  absence  has  been  in  its 
dissolution. 

An  example  from  our  own  country,  will 
illustrate  this  tendency,  .While  showing  at  the 
same  time  how  the  feeling  of  mutual  sympathy 
may  exist  between  peoples  of  different  nation- 
alities, and  may  be  absent  between  racially 
related  nations  even  within  the  same  nation- 
ality. / 

There  was  a  time  when  this  community  of 
feeling  was  present  among  all  the  subjects  of 
the  Danish  realm,  not  only  among  Danes  but 
also  among  Norwegians  and  Germans.  We  find 
in  history  and  in  literature  many  striking  proofs 
of  the  loyalty  shown  to  the  Danish  King  and  to 
the  Monarchy  by  his  Holstein  subjects  right 
up  to  the  time  when  the  German  movement 
towards  unity  reached  them,  and  when  for 
thirty  years  the  separatist,  "  Sleswig-Holstein," 
movement  received  an  artificial  impetus — only 
to  be  crushed  by  the  iron  heel  of  Prussia  in 
1864.  (We  need  only  to  be  reminded  of  the 
German  National  Song :  "  Heil  dir  im1  Sieges- 
kranz,"  frankly  written  by  a  Holsteiner  to 
the  Danish  King.)  And  as  long  as  a  community 
of  feeling  existed  the  Monarchy  was  well  pro- 
tected and  no  danger  threatened  it. 

When  it  disappeared  the  Monarchy,  went  to 


48          PACIFISM  AND  ITS  ADVERSARIES 

pieces,  and  along  with  it  went  by  the  board 
an  old  Danish  territory,  which  now  is  thriving 
very  badly  indeed  within  the  German  realm, 
because  it  lacks  every  trace  of  communal 
sympathy  with  it.  'As  surely  as  it  is  this  sense 
of  a  common  life  which  has  created  the  unity 
of  Germany  and  the  unity  of  Italy,  and  which 
has  secured  the  liberation  of  Greece  and  of 
the  Balkan  States,  and  continues  to  secure  it, 
until  the  national  and  political  borders  some- 
what correspond,  so  surely  must  the  absence 
of  communal  sympathy  sooner  or  later  divide 
North  Sleswig  from  the  German  Empire. 

Vice  versa,  we  have  seen  how  the  lack  of 
this  feeling  has  been  sufficient  to  separate  two 
nations  which  geographically,  historically, 
linguistically,  nationally,  and  politically  were 
so  closely  bound  together  as  Sweden  and 
Norway,  or  Holland  and  Belgium,  and  how 
the  existence  of  Switzerland  depends  on  the 
fact  that  its  German,  French,  and  Italian  inhabi- 
tants do  not  feel  themselves  to  be  connected 
with  other  Germans,  Frenchmen,  or  Italians, 
but  are  bound  together  in  the  bonds  of  mutual 
sympathy. 

This  national  consciousness  is  a  powerful 
factor,  having  wide  -  reaching  and  practical 
effects.  And  if  it  is  to  be  made  a  decisive 
factor  in  determining  the  borders  and  the  extent 
of  States,  then  we  are  adopting  a  principle 


NATIONAL  WARS  49 

which  is  not  quite  new,  but  which  is  taken  up 
anew  again  only  because  it  was  formerly, 
applied,  as  the  ideal  in  settling  international 
conflicts,  by  the  head  of  a  great  State,  who  in 
truth  had  considerable  resources  in  making  it 
effective,  namely,  Napoleon  III. 

His  favourite  idea  of  the  plebiscite  as  the 
last  court  of  appeal  in  questions  of  this  kind 
was  something  more  than  a  mere  whim  or 
clever  tactics  ;  it  really  had  its  foundation  in  an 
understanding  of  where  the  last  decision  in  these 
questions  ought  to  lie,  and  in  the  long  run  really 
does  lie,  namely,  with  the  peoples  themselves, 
and  in  an  understanding  as  to  who  is  best 
able  to  watch  over  the  weal  and  woe  of  the 
peoples— again  the  peoples  themselves. 

(fr)  The  second  means  of  securing  the  cessa- 
tion of  wars  is  to  allow  the  political  borders 
to  remain  in  the  meantime  as  they  are,  however 
imperfect  these  may  be,  and  however  much 
injustice  this  may  imply,  and  to  ensure  that 
the  legal  status  of  the  individual  and  his 
personal  and  political  position  are  such  that 
even  if  it  is  not  quite  a  matter  of  indifference 
to  what  State  he  belongs,  at  least  this  is  much 
more  the  case  than  hitherto,  so  that  the  question 
of  nationality  becomes  a  mere  side  issue  instead 
of  being  a  matter  of  life  and  death.  The  people 
might  perhaps  wish  for  a  change  in  their 
political  relations,  but  they  could  also,  with 

I 


50          PACIFISM  AND   ITS  ADVERSARIES 

some  equanimity,  put  up  with  existing  con- 
ditions, pretty  much  as  in  the  United  States, 
where  it  is  not  a  question  of  deep  interest  or 
of  vital  importance  to  the  individual  whether 
he  lives  in  one  State  or  another. 

That  is  to  say,  in  other  words,  matters  ought 
to  be  so  arranged  that  the  people  of  one 
nationality  would  be  quite  content  to  live  their 
lives  within  the  boundaries  of  a  State  of  other 
nationality  (in  this  way  Germans,  Scandina- 
vians, Italians,  Frenchmen,  Irishmen,  Poles, 
Russians,  Jews,  etc.,  live  contentedly  in  the 
United  States).  Under  these  conditions  they 
would  be  so  contented  that  although  an  altera- 
tion of  the  territorial  border  lines  might 
perhaps  seem  desirable,  the  people  would  never 
think  of  sacrificing  life  and  property  to 
secure  it. 

Can  we  reach  this,  and  how?  \ 

If  we  want  to  please  any  one  the  first  thing 
is  to  ask  him  if  he  has  any  complaints  to  make, 
and  what  these  are. 

So  our  first  step  in  dealing  with  nations 
who  are  supposed  to  be  wronged  and  oppressed, 
or  rather  with  nations  living  under  a  foreign 
rule,1  would  be  first  to  discover  what  grievances 

1  There  are  people  living  under  foreign  rule  who  on 
the  whole  do  not  complain,  who  really  have  no  political 
or  national  grievances  at  all — e.g.  Germans,  Scandinavians, 
Italians,  Poles,  etc.,  in  the  United  States.  It  might, 


NATIONAL  WARS  51 

they  have,  next  to  judge  of  the  rights  and 
wrongs  of  these  grievances,  and  finally  to  con- 
sider the  means  whereby,  an  improvement  may 
be  brought  about. 

The  only  thing  to  be  said  against  the  appli- 
cation of  this  principle  is  that  the  process  is 

therefore,  be  reasonable  to  take  their  circumstances  as 
typical,  and  say :  "  Give  all  nations  under  foreign  rule 
the  same  conditions  of  life,  then  they  will  stop  complain- 
ing, and  the  national  differences  will  be  smoothed  out." 
The  question  is,  however,  not  quite  free  from  complica- 
tions. We  must  first  of  all  remember  that  people  under 
foreign  rule  are  of  two  kinds — (1)  people  who  of  their 
own  free  will  have  chosen  foreign  rule  (that  is,  emigrants, 
not  only  in  America,  but  also,  for  instance,  French 
Huguenots  in  the  European  countries,  although,  of 
course,  in  a  Lilliputian  measure  compared  to  the  emigra- 
tion to  America)  ;  and  (2)  people  whom  the  circumstances 
of  war  have  brought  against  their  will  under  foreign  rule 
— that  is  to  say,  conquered  people.  It  is  evident  that 
a  man  who  of  his  own  free  will  and  without  invitation 
travels  to  a  foreign  country  of  other  nationality  and  settles 
there  cannot  make  conditions,  but  must  submit  to  the 
laws  and  regulations,  circumstances  and  peculiarities  of 
that  country.  If  he  does  not  like  them  and  complains 
he  may  be  told  :  "  You  could  have  stayed  away.  You 
knew,  or  you  ought  to  have  known,  what  you  were 
doing  ;  if  you  object,  why  did  you  come  ?  " 

On  the  other  hand,  a  man  who  has  been  brought  under 
foreign  rule  by  force  has  much  more  claim  (a  moral  claim 
which  needs  no  support  of  the  sword)  to  be  treated  accord- 
ing to  his  wishes.  He  can  on  his  side  say  to  his  rulers  : 
"  I  have  never  wished  to  belong  to  you  ;  on  the  contrary, 
it  is  very  much  against  my  wish.  But  if  you  insist  on 


52          PACIFISM  AND   ITS  ADVERSARIES 

a  slow  one.  There  are  many,  nations  living 
under  foreign  rule,  and  their  complaints  differ 
so  widely  that  an  examination  and  a  study  of 
them  would  fill — and  as  a  matter  of  fact  does 
fill  —  many  large  volumes.  For  practical 
reasons  I  shall  therefore  choose  another 
method,  and  as  a  postulate  Which  I  assume 

keeping  me,  whether  I  wish  to  remain  or  not,  may  I  at 
least  ask  to  be  treated  decently  ?  " 

This  implies  that  the  rights  which  the  emigrant  enjoys 
in  a  foreign  land  are  to  be  looked  upon  also  as  the 
minimum  claims  for  the  man  who  lives  under  enforced 
foreign  rule  in  his  own  country.  Has  he  not  the  right 
to  say  to  his  ruler :  "  You  will  surely  not  deny  me  the 
rights  which  you  enjoy  yourself  the  moment  you  cross 
the  ocean  ?  " 

We  must  further  assume  that  the  man  who  of  his  own 
free  will  seeks  foreign  rule,  i.e.  the  emigrant,  is  prepared 
to  accept  the  fact,  and  has  become  reconciled  to  the 
thought  that  his  children  and  grandchildren  must  give 
up  their  nationality  even  if  he  does  not  do  so  himself. 
A  man  with  a  specially  strong  feeling  of  nationality  and 
national  consciousness,  who  cannot  bear  this  thought, 
must  stay  at  home.  The  people  of  the  new  land  could 
with  some  justification  take  national  precautions  to 
defend  their  nationality  and  their  language  from  being 
debased  through  a  large  influx  of  immigrants.  But  the 
conquered  must  have  a  yet  greater  claim  than  the 
emigrant  to  have  his  nationality  respected — again  a  moral 
claim  not  based  on  the  sword.  That  such  moral  claims 
exist  we  see  best  in  the  peace  treaties,  where  a  nation, 
perhaps  twenty  times  stronger,  has  dictated  terms  of 
peace  to  a  nation  twenty  times  weaker  (e.g.  in  the 
Peace  of  Vienna  between  Denmark  and  Prussia  an4 


NATIONAL  WARS  53 

to  be  self-evident,  I  will  submit  a  statement 
of  a  series  of  general  human  rights,  which  all 
will  probably  accept  in  theory.  As  a  guide 
and  limitation  to  my  argument  let  me  say  at 
the  outset  that  I  put  forward  no  claim  to  any 
right  which  is  not  possessed  by  every  immigrant 
in  the  United  States,  and  which  is  not  found  in 
the  party  political  programme  of  every  nation 
under  foreign  rule. 

There  may  be  some  who,  despite  this  fact, 
decline  to  acknowledge  these  claims.  In  the 
first  place  there  are  those  who  on  the  whole 
do  not  recognize  or  acknowledge  any  moral 
claim  in  international  relationships  and  in  the 
mutual  life  of  nations.  They  only  acknowledge 
the  claims  Which  are  put  forward  by  the  neces- 
sities of  guns  and  munitions  ;  in  other  words, 
they  acknowledge  no  other  right  than  the  right 
of  the  sword,  the  right  of  the  strongest.1 

Austria  in  1864,  which  besides  is  an  example  of  a  legally 
formed  claim  not  always  being  respected). 

In  the  same  way,  too,  in  national  questions  especially, 
one  might  be  justified  in  pointing  out  the  rights  which 
the  immigrant  enjoys  in  a  foreign  land  as  the  minimum 
rights  of  a  conquered  people  in  their  own  country.  Here, 
too,  these  could  justly  say  to  their  conqueror  :  "  Will  you 
deny  to  me  the  benefits  which  you  enjoy  yourself,  when 
you  of  your  own  free  will  settle  in  a  foreign  land  ?  " 

1  Representatives  in  literature  of  this  point  of  view 
are,  e.g.,  Nietzsche,  and  among  lesser  lights  Georg  Kietz, 
Major  v.  Pfister,  Alldeutscher  Verbund,  etc. 


54          PACIFISM  AND   ITS  ADVERSARIES 

However,  it  is  no  use  arguing  with  these 
people  except  with  guns  and  munitions. 

Secondly,  there  may  be  general  disagreement 
among  a  number  of  people  who  never  have 
thought  deeply  about  these  questions,  but  who 
from  their  birth  have  gradually  come  to  regard 
themselves  as  belonging  to  the  ruling  nation, 
and  who  accept  the  conditions  of  the  conquered 
nation  as  a  matter  of  course.  For  these  there 
is  need  of  argument. 

But  as  the  argument  would  be  too  long,  as 
I  have  said  before,  I  have  elected  to  dispense 
with  it  here,  and  let  it  follow  in  an  independent 
Supplement  written  by  quite  another  hand.  I 
happen  fortunately  to  have  in  my  possession 
a  document,  a  hitherto  unprinted  pamphlet, 
handed  to  me  by  a  young  man  now  dead. 
He  belonged  to  a  nation  which  is  living  under 
foreign  rule,  but  he  had  emigrated  some  time 
ago  to  the  United  States,  where  he  died  recently, 
and  I  publish  this  with  his  consent.  In  my, 
opinion  it  is  at  once  a  striking,  valuable,  and 
faithful  representation  of  the  complaints  of  sup- 
pressed nations  in  general,  and  at  the  same 
time  it  is  an  argument  and  an  appeal.  Thus 
my  arguments  for  the  programme  of  general 
human  rights  must  be  found  in  the  following 
Supplement.  I  could  hardly  keep  them  within 
reasonable  limits  here.  And  the  contents  of 
the  Supplement  may  perhaps  scarcely  be  called 


NATIONAL  WARS  55 

arguments,  but  rather  a  propaganda,  an  appeal. 
T.he  somewhat  passionate  and  excited  form  of 
the  document  will,  I  hope,  be  excused,  and 
be  put  down  to  the  extreme  youth  of  the  author, 
and  to  his  injured  national  feelings.  .With  any, 
one  who  after  reading  his  short  pamphlet  still 
says,  "  He  is  wrong  "  I  shall  consider  it  a  waste 
of  time  to  argue. 


CHAPTER    III 

TO    ILLUSTRATE    THE    IMPORTANCE    OF 
THE    RIGHTS    OF    PEACE 

A    SUPPLEMENT 
PREFACE 

I  HAVE  been  rather  doubtful  about  using  this 
Supplement  here  because  it  deals  exclusively 
with  the  transgressions  of  a  certain  single 
nation  against  the  rights  of  peace,  and  personal 
and  unpleasant  remarks  against  the  said  nation 
should  preferably  be  avoided  in  a  book  like 
this.  Besides,  the  expressions  of  the  author 
are  in  many  places  strong,  even  at  times  violent, 
and  for  that  reason  he  occasionally  misses  his 
point  and  says  too  much,  as  he  himself  acknow- 
ledges in  later  footnotes. 

I  have,  however,  decided  to  print  it  because 
I  feel  that  an  impartial  academic  representa- 
tion of  the  general  circumstances  only,  without 
any  relation  to  the  particular,  i.e.  to  a  certain 
nation  and  its  conditions,  would  be  quite  value- 
less—would be  colourless,  in  fact,  and  without 
feature.  Being  unable  to  speak  to  the  heart, 
it  would  make  no  impression  at  all,  and  would 

H 


A  SUPPLEMENT  57 

carry  with  it  no  conviction.  The  nation  in 
question  will,  I  hope,  forgive  me  for  using  it 
here  as  a  warning  example,  when  I  say  at 
the  same  time  and  acknowledge  frankly  that 
we  might  have  equally  well — perhaps  even 
better — taken  an  example  from  somewhere  else, 
for  instance  from  the  relation  of  the  Russians 
to  the  Poles,  to  the  Finns,  the  Ruthenians,  or 
from  the  relation  of  the  Magyars  to  the  Slavs, 
the  Croatians  and  the  Rumanians,  from  that  of 
the  Japanese  to  the  Koreans  and  the  Chinese, 
etc.  But  my  deceased  author  friend  had  not 
the  necessary  knowledge  of  these  relations,  and 
I  have  no  connection  through  which  I  could 
secure  such  a  document  from  these  districts. 
On  the  other  hand,  I  happen  to  have  this  present 
sketch,  and  I  consider  it  a  "  find,"  and  as  a 
document  humain  of  the  greatest  interest  and 
weight,  and  an  excellent  piece  of  propagandist 
literature,  which  will  explain  better  than  long- 
winded  theories,  to  all  who  need  it,  the  im- 
portance and  the  justice  of  the  claims  of  peace, 
and  also  the  all -important  part  which  these 
claims  play  in  the  daily  life  of  the  people,  and 
in  their  most  precious  and  intimate  relations. 
My  authority  (the  author  of  this  work)  some 
time  ago  sent  the  manuscript  for  perusal  to 
a  prominent  man  among  his  national  antago- 
nists—in fact,  to  a  highly  cultured  German  in 
Berlin,  who  is  free  from  prejudice,  and  who 


58          PACIFISM  AND   ITS  ADVERSARIES 

is  known  to  be  more  than  usually  independent 
in  his  point  of  view  with  regard  to  suppressed 
nations.  This  gentleman  has  added  footnotes 
to  the  manuscript  (very  incisive  in  their 
brevity),  and  he  has  made  objections  to  several 
things  in  it.  The  author  has  recognized  the 
justice  of  some  of  these  notes,  and  he  has 
acknowledged  having  made  some  errors  in 
matters  of  fact.  In  respect  of  others  he  has 
made  no  such  admissions,  as  appears  from 
additional  notes  which  he  has  added  to  those 
of  the  German. 

I  might  have  corrected  the  errors  where  my 
author  owns  to  them,  and'  taken  no  notice  of 
the  German's  notes.  But  I  have  preferred  to 
give  the  whole  as  it  stood,  to  print  his  manu- 
script unchanged,  and  to  add  the  notes  of 
the  German  critic  as  footnotes  in  italics, 
and  then  again  the  answer  to  these  notes  from 
the  author  as  supplementary  footnotes,  but  in 
ordinary  type. 

In  making  my  apology  to  the  great  German 
nation  for  placing  it  in  the  pillory,  I  ask  it  to 
be  assured  that  I  do  so  for  want  of  a  better 
example.  And  so  I  give  place  to  my  author. 
Certain  crude  and  naive  expressions  (e.g.  on 
the  title-page)  will  strike  the  reader's  eye  with- 
out any  interpretation  on  my  part.  I  ask  him 
not  to  be  alarmed  at  these ;  as  he  proceeds  he 
will  find  his  reward. 


A   SUPPLEMENT  59 


NOTE. 

IN  his  book  "  The  Barbarism  of  Berlin,"  which  is 
translated  into  Danish  and  is  widely  known,  Mr.  G.  K. 
Chesterton  explains  why  the  Teuton  is  the  "  positive " 
barbarian.  This  is  stated  briefly  in  two  sentences  on 
page  32  :  "  His  limited,  but  very  severe,  lunacy  concen- 
trates chiefly  in  a  desire  to  destroy  two  ideas,  the  twin 
root  ideas  of  rational  society.  The  first  is  the  idea  of 
record  and  promise  ;  the  second  is  the  idea  of  reci- 
procity." 

A  better  illustration  of  these  statements  can  hardly  be 
wished  for  than  the  one  contained  in  the  following 
description  at  first  hand  of  the  rule  of  the  Germans  over 
conquered  peoples.  Nay,  rather,  a  still  better  confirma- 
tion is  to  be  found  in  the  original  footnotes  written  by 
a  German — not  by  an  average  German,  but  by  a  German 
pastor  who  has  held  an  appointment  in  one  of  the 
oppressed  border  districts,  who  evidently  is  an  active 
Christian  of  strong  convictions,  and  who  has  so  much 
sense  of  justice  that  he  has  felt  disgusted  at  the  treatment 
meted  out  to  his  parishioners.  He  had  so  much  courage 
that  he  spoke  in  public  against  it,  and  he  is,  in  conse- 
quence, in  the  "  black  books  "  of  the  Government  and 
is  being  persecuted  by  the  thoroughgoing  pan-Germans. 
He  is  thus  quite  an  exception  in  the  German  nation. 
But  even  he  cannot,  as  appears  from  his  footnotes,  get 
his  eyes  opened  to  "  the  idea  of  reciprocity." 


60          PACIFISM  AND  ITS  ADVERSARIES 


AGAINST    THE    BARBARIANS  ! 

AN  ACCUSATION  BEFORE  THE  COURT  OF  CIVILIZA- 
TION BY 

ST.   POPOLSKI,   Merchant,   Posen ; 

J.   DANSK,    Farm   Proprietor,    Als ; 

P.  FRANCOIS,   Manufacturer,  Muhlhausen. 

To  ALL  GERMAN  CLERGYMEN  AND  TEACHERS  AND 
TO  THINKING  GERMAN  CHRISTIANS. 

(Quamquam  sunt  sub  aqua,  sub  aqua.) 

To  THE  PEOPLES  OF  EUROPE. 

(To  all  civilized  Nations  !) ' 

1  Sir,— 

I  have  read  your  manuscript  with  interest,  and 
in  its  vehemence  I  have  fully  understood  and  appreciated 
a  Dane's  proudly  patriotic  heart  and  its  thirst  for  justice. 
You  have  sent  me  the  manuscript  without  reserve.  I 
might  acknowledge  it  in  a  few  indifferent  words.  If, 
instead  of  doing  so,  I  return  your  manuscript  with  foot- 
notes (some  of  them  very  pointed)  this  is  not  done  to 
annoy  you.  I  merely  wish  to  show  you  how  careful  one 
must  be  in  dealing  with  such  material.  If  your  work 
were  printed  you  would  do  harm  to  your  cause  through 
the  errors  which  I  have  pointed  out.  And  you  wish  to 
further  it.  Most  pleased  to  give  further  answers,  and 
with  thanks  for  the  confidence  shown  to  me, 

I  remain,  etc. 


A  SUPPLEMENT  61 

WE  belong  to  some  of  the  European  nations, 
civilized  nations  with  an  old  culture,  nations 
which  verily  are  not  inferior  to  others,  but 
nations  of  which  a  part  is  under  foreign  rule. 
And  we  should  like  to  speak  in  the  name  of 
all  those  nations  which  are  suppressed,  ill- 
treated,  and  persecuted  by  foreign  oppressors. 
Our  intention  is  not  to  move  Europe  to  pity — 
no  one  can  thrive  on  pity — but  we  intend  to 
accuse  our  rulers,  to  show  the  whole  of 
humanity  by  what  barbarians  we  are  ruled, 
and  how  they  trample  upon  all  human  and 
Divine  laws  (to  say  nothing  of  their  own) 
simply  in  order  to  torture  us. 

It  is  immaterial  what  nation  we  belong  to  ; 
it  is  immaterial  whether  we  say  that  we  come 
of  a  people  Who  for  centuries  were  the  leaders 
in  the  culture  of  the  Continent,  and  whose 
language  was  the  international  'one  of  civiliza- 
tion, or  whether  we  name  ourselves  sons  of 
the  people  who  for  centuries  were  the  outpost 
of  Europe  against  Tartars  and  Turks,  who 
before  the  gates  of  Vienna  saved  German  culture 
from  being  suffocated  in  the  Turkish  embrace, 
and  who  in  return  for  this,  not  a  hundred 
years  later,  were  deceived  and  butchered  by 
the  same  Germans  ;  or  whether  we  say  that  we 
belong  to  the  small  Scandinavian  nation  which 
first  measured  the  velocity  of  light,  first  dis- 
covered electro -magnetism,  first  re-awakened 


62          PACIFISM  AND   ITS  ADVERSARIES 

classical  art  in  the  present  time,  first  loosened 
the  bonds  of  the  peasant,  and  which,  perhaps, 
is  foremost  among  European  States  in  humane 
social  laws. 

Whether  we  belong  to  the  one  or  to  the 
other  of  these  unfortunate  oppressed  groups  is 
quite  a  matter  of  indifference.  The  treatment 
is  the  same,  the  complaints  are  the  same.  The 
brutal  hand  on  the  throat,  the  clenched  fist 
before  the  face  is  the  same  for  us  all ;  it  is 
the  same  foreign  Barbarian  who  takes  a  gross 
pleasure  in  overpowering  us  (and  then  after- 
wards insulting  us  for  our  weakness),  in 
robbing  us  of  the  conditions  which  make  for 
progress  in  culture  and  in  taunting  us  after- 
wards with  our  lower  state  of  development, 
a  Barbarian  who  every  day  lets  us  feel  his 
brutal  rule,  and  at  the  same  time  brags  of  his 
nobler  nature  and  his  own  higher  civilization. 

The  ground  of  complaint  is  the  same  with  us 
all.  Let  us  try,  therefore,  with  one  voice  to 
speak  for  all,  proclaim  aloud  to  the  civilized 
world  what  infamies  are  being  committed  every 
day  in  civilization's  name.  We  shall  disclose 
our  oppressors  as  the  disturbers  of  European 
peace,  as  the  destroyers  of  civilization  among 
our  people,  as  the  enemies  of  culture,  as  the 
rod  of  God's  anger  over  us  just  as  much  as 
was  once  the  case  with  Mongolians  and  Turks. 
"  Nations  of  Europe  !  Protect  your  most  holy, 


A   SUPPLEMENT  63 

possessions  !  " — thus  the  warning  words  of  an 
Emperor  once  sounded — "  against  the  Yellow 
Peril  !  "  But  what  if  those  most  holy  posses- 
sions have  already,  been  taken  away  from  us? 
No,  let  us  protect  our  most  holy  possessions 
from  the  peril  of  our  rulers  !  It  is  the  nearer 
peril,  and  the  greater.  Let  us  for  once  tell 
how  life  shapes  itself  for  us  under  foreign  rule, 
and  Europe  shall  hear  things  which  will  fill 
her  with  horror  and  anger. 

Many  evil  doings,  many  cruel  charges  will 
be  recorded  in  this  small  book.  But  no  un- 
truthful word  will  be  found,  and  every  state- 
ment stands  verified  by,  the  testimony  of  our 
rulers  themselves.  Every  example  given  is 
related  to  distinct  persons  and  actual  occur- 
rences. Any  one  can  test  them,  if  he  will  take 
the  trouble,  and  go  to  the  right  place.  And 
should  doubt  arise,  our  representatives  can  give 
him  information. 

Where  shall  we  begin?  With  our  economic 
circumstances,  our  legal  conditions,  our  political 
rights,  our  difficulties  with  regard  to  our 
mother  tongue,  our  laws  of  exemption,  our 
religious  ill-treatment?  No,  let  us  begin  with 
that  which  is  the  most  precious  of  all  our 
possessions,  with  our  children. 

God  be  praised  !  during  the  first  seven  years 
of  their  lives,  we  can  keep  them,  can  teach 
them  their  mother  tongue,  teach  them  to  love 


64          PACIFISM  AND   ITS  ADVERSARIES 

us,  our  language,  our  people,  and  our  memories. 
And  this  shall  continue.  As  long  as  our 
language  exists,  as  long  as  we  are  not  all 
expropriated  and  driven  from  our  homes  and 
our  land,  so  long  shall  all  our  strength  and 
power  be  used  in  securing  that  during  those 
seven  peaceful  years  the  child  is  so  trained 
and  developed  that  it  becomes  for  all  time  a 
shoot  of  the  parent  stem,  so  that  when  it  enters 
the  foreign  school  it  is  already  armed  with  a 
force  which  nothing  can  conquer,  tied  with 
the  ties  which  nothing  can  break,  the  ties  of 
home,  the  ties  of  love  for  parents,  of  love  for 
the  mother  tongue  and  for  its  nationality.  This 
we  cannot  be  prevented  from  doing.  Even  our 
rulers  have  not  sufficient  police-officers  to 
censor  what  the  mother  whispers  into  her 
child's  ear  and  what  songs  she  sings  at  its 
cradle.  Be  convinced,  Herr  Landrath,  that  the 
forbidden  songs  shall  continue  to  sound  in  the 
sacred  spot  to  all  eternity,  those  old  songs 
which  our  forefathers  sang  in  a  free  country, 
but  for  the  singing  of  which  we  now  are  cast 
into  prison.  At  the  child's  cradle  they  shall 
never  die  ! 

But  then  the  day  of  anguish  dawns  when 
our  child  is  torn  from  us  by  force,  and  is 
put  into  a  foreign  school  against  our  will,  to 
be  brought  up  in  a  foreign  atmosphere,  and 
to  learn  to  despise  us  and  What  is  ours,  and 


A   SUPPLEMENT  65 

to  learn  to  see  everything  great  in  das  grosse 
Vaterland. 

By  force,  I  say,  for  it  is  so.  To  put  our 
child  in  a  private  school,  where  it  might  be 
taught  in  its  mother  tongue,  and  be  taught 
Christian  doctrine  in  the  language  it  can  under- 
stand— that  is  forbidden.  Forbidden  !  To 
think  that  we  are  forbidden  to  decide  about 
the  teaching  of  our  children  !  Even  if  we  pro- 
pose that  in  a  private  school  they  should  be 
taught  the  language,  the  history,  and  the  litera- 
ture of  our  rulers — even  that  is  forbidden.  No 
man  or  woman  of  our  nation  is  allowed  to 
conduct  a  private  school.  And  if  we  wish  to 
teach  the  child  at  home  ourselves  this  also  is 
forbidden.  The  examining  Board  before  long 
pronounces  that  the  child  is  insufficiently  taught, 
and  that  it  must  be  sent  to  a  public  school. 

Thus  the  child  meets  the  German  teacher— 
and  oh  !  he  is  so  German — who  too  often  is  an 
obedient  tool,  and  who,  wishing  to  please  the 
Government  and  his  superiors,  violates  without 
shame  the  conscience  and  soul  of  the  child., 
and  sows  broadcast  in  its  mind  doubt  and 
hatred  in  his  endeavour  to  create  a  gulf 
between  me  and  my  child  !  l  Frisch  daran  I 
Nur  gesinningstiichtig ! 

Thus,  then,  the  child  is  taught :   by  a  teacher 

1  In  general  this  is  not  true. — Perhaps  not,  but  in 
many,  many  places  it  is  true  ! 

5 


66          PACIFISM  AND   ITS  ADVERSARIES 

who  does  not  understand  a  word  of  its  language, 
in  German,  which  it  does  not  yet  understand. 
God  be  praised  !  We  pride  ourselves  on  the 
child  going  to  school  without  understanding 
German.  This  does  not  favour  successful 
teaching.  It  causes  the  child  to  suffer,  but 
this  suffering  is  necessary.  It  is  a  necessity  to 
show  from  the  very  first  day  that  it  is  our 
child  and  not  a  German  child,  and  that  what 
the  school  offers  is  something  foreign  and 
something  which  does  not  belong!  to  it. 

The  teaching,  then,  is  in  German.  It  consists, 
in  the  meantime,  mostly  of  religious  instruc- 
tion. At  home  we  have  already  taught  the 
child  the  Lord's  prayer  in  our  language,  now 
it  must  learn  it  again  in  another  tongue.  Yes, 
and  what  is  more — the  teacher  may  insist  that 
also  at  home  the  prayers  must  be  said  in 
German,  i 

This  the  child  does  not  do  ;  we  shall  see 
to  that.  As  diligently  as  the  school  teaches  it 
the  Lord's  prayer  in  the  foreign  language,  as 
diligently  do  we  tell  the  child  at  home  that  it 
must  pray,  of  course,  in  its  mother  tongue  ; 
and  the  child  does  it. 

In  the  school  the  child  learns  to  write  beauti- 
fully and,  perhaps,  to  spell  rightly— that  is, 
not  its  native  language.  No,  that  we  parents 

1  This  is  not  true! — Possibly  only  single  cases  have 
happened. 


A  SUPPLEMENT  67 

must  laboriously  sit  and  teach  the  children  at 
home.  And  then  we  wish,  if  we  can,  to  send 
it  away,  for  a  finishing  course  across  the  border, 
when  it  is  grown  up,  even  if  we  thereby  call 
down  on  our  heads  every  form  of  worry  and 
irritation  which  a  zealous  and  aggressive  official 
can  invent  for  us.  But  in  all  those  homes,  of 
which  there  are  many,  where  time  and  the 
gift  for  home  teaching  are  wanting,  the  child 
on  the  whole  does  not  learn  to  read  or  write, 
its  own  language  properly  at  all,  and,  we  may, 
say,  not  German  either.  And  the  child  is  taught 
history  —  German  history,  about  the  great 
victories  of  the  Germans  over  us,  over  our 
poor  nation,  and  about  their  enormous 
superiority  over  us  in  culture,  history  from 
German  school  books  written  specially  for  our 
use  and  bursting  with  chauvinism  and  con- 
taining glaring  and  evident  mistakes  and  mis- 
representations . l 

My  child  gets  singing,  too,  at  school  !  And 
what  a  joy  the  singing  lesson  might  be  !  But 
to  my  child  it  is  a  plague  and  pestilence.  Our 
songs,  the  songs  of  our  forefathers,  are  not 
heard  there,  not  even  a  hymn  in  our  tongue.2 

1  Nowadays  this  is  done  more  judiciously. — Perhaps  a 
little. 

2  Untrue. — Not   true  everywhere,   but  still  in   many 
places.     In  a  short  review,  January  1911,  "  Heimdal " 
states  that  in  purely  Danish  school  districts  already  60 


68          PACIFISM  AND  ITS  ADVERSARIES 

German  songs,  "  Heil  Dir  im  Siegeskranz  " 
and  "  Wacht  am  Rhein,"  and  whatever  they 
call  them — all  these  songs  which  we  hate  and 
detest  because  they  are  forced  on  us.  Especi- 
ally on  the  day  of  Sedan  they  have  to  sing  in 
chorus  :  "  Ich  bin  ein  Preusze,  will  ein  Preusze 
sein,"  and  the  teacher  keeps  a  sharp  and  jealous 
look-out  in  case  they  sing  instead :  "  Ich  bin 
kein  Preusze,  will  kein  Preusze  sein "  ;  and 
if  they  sing  this  (and  they  do  it  often),  they 
are  punished.  Many  a  caning  has  been  given 
in  German  schools  for  this  transgression. 

There  are  intervals  for  play  in  the  school, 
and  there  is  a  playground.  Playground,  for- 
sooth !  The  child  who  in  the  playground 
speaks  a  single  word  in  its  mother  tongue,  in 
the  language  of  its  parents — is  punished  !  To 
such  service  as  executioners  can  men  be 
bought !  It  is,  of  course,  poor  instruction  which 
is  given  in  the  German  school,  and  my  child 
cannot  be  compared  with  children  of  such 
fortunate  nations  as  are  taught  in  their  native 
tongue. 

But  it  has  this  advantage,  that  the  Prussian 
can  point  to  us  and  say :  "  See  how  uncultured 
these  people  are.  They  need,  indeed,  to  be 

teachers  have  been  appointed  who  cannot  speak  Danish. 
In  151  school  areas  the  religious  instruction  was  given  in 
Danish  to  7,620  children,  in  German  to  5,317.  And  this 
last  number  will  increase  yearly  at  the  expense  of  the  other. 


A  SUPPLEMENT  69 

blest  with  the  superior  German  Kultur  !  "  This 
however,  we  accept  as  part  of  the  bargain. 
Rather  a  less  cultured  child  than  a  German 
child,  than  a  child  without  root — with  a  divided 
mind,  a  renegade  child,  without  nationality.1  We 
accept  this  as  a  part  of  the  bargain  because 
it  cannot  be  otherwise. 

And,  God  be  praised  !  we  are  the  strongest. 
The  child  remains  with  us.  Even  if  they  finally 
put  him  into  military  uniform  and  send  him 
away  for  two  or  three  years  to  the  other  end 
of  Germany,  entirely  among  Germans,  God  be 
thanked  and  praised  !  he  comes  home  again  to 
us  and  is  our  child,  child  of  our  people— and 
not  a  German. 

There  is  only  one  single  thing  which  couJ4 
bring  victory  to  the  other  side — if  they  took 
the  child  from  us  and  robbed  it  of  our  influence. 
And  that  is  what  they  have  done  !  Whether  you 
will  believe  it  or  not,  dear  reader,  they  have 
done  this  incredible  deed — this  sacrilege  they, 
have  really  committed. 

They  have,  by  means  of  administration, 
robbed  of  their  parental  authority  people  who 
have  shown  activity  in  the  national  cause,  and 
have  transferred  their  authority  to  a  "  loyalist," 
to  a  (ffesinnunffstuchtig)  guardian.  But  about 
this  we  shall  speak  later  on. 

Let  us  first,  then,  give  the  enemy  his  due. 
'  Good! 


70          PACIFISM  AND  ITS  ADVERSARIES 

There  are  places  and  districts  where  the  children 
get  two  hours'  *  religious  instruction  weekly  in 
their  mother  tongue  in  the  lower  classes,  yet 
not  always  instead  of  the  German  instruction, 
but  often  as  an  addition  to  this  outside  the 
proper  school  hours.2  These  are  the  fragments 
which  here  and  there  are  left  of  our  language 
in  the  schools.  Two  hours'  weekly  religious 
instruction  !  But  we  despise  them  and  count 
them  as  nothing.  For  it  is  'as  objectionable 
that  a  German  teacher  should  teach  our  child 
in  his  language,  which  is  strange  to  it,  as  it 
is  that  he  should  teach  the  child  in  our  language 
which  he  himself  has  not  mastered  (but  which 
in  his  mouth,  through  its  difficulties,  causes 
results  which  seem  humorous  to  the  children 
and  to  us  blasphemous,  a  thing  which  he  never 
clearly  sees  or  suspects  himself).  No,  such 
religious  instruction  is  an  offence  only,  a  Judas 
piece  of  silver  .3  It  is  no  grief  to  us  4  that  this 
instruction  is  gradually  being  discontinued  in 
one  parish  after  another,  and  soon  will  be 
but  a  saga  in  large  parts  of  the  country. 

In  the  end  my  child  leaves  the  scho,ol  from 
its  highest  class — but  in  what  a  condition?  It 
has  not  mastered  German,  which  is  only  a 
school  language  to  it.  It  has  not  mastered 

1  Four  hours  and  two  hours,  in  German. 

a  Wrong. — Is  maintained. 

3  Very  doubtful.  «  ?  ? 


A  SUPPLEMENT  71 

its  mother  tongue  either ;  the  State  purposely, 
prevents  it  from  learning  to  write  it  correctly, 
in  respect  of  spelling  and  construction  of 
sentences.  (How  would  an  English  child's 
mother  tongue  fare,  I  wonder,  if  it  had  never 
had  an  English  reading  lesson  or  had  never 
written  a  piece  of  English  composition,  but 
had  been  taught  exclusively  in  Erench?)  And 
this  cannot  be  altered.  No  energy,  no  pterse- 
verance  can  alter  the  fact  that  the  child  does 
not  learn  German  thoroughly  so  long  as  the 
home  keeps  a  jealous  look-out  to  prevent 
German  from  slipping  in  and  usurping  the  place 
of  the  mother  tongue  ;  while,  on  the  other  hand, 
the  home  cannot  teach  the  child  the  mother 
tongue  properly  so  long  as  the  school  does  all 
it  can  to  keep  it  out.  The  school  cannot  teach 
the  child  German  without  the  home  and  in  face 
of  the  home's  opposition,  and  the  home  cannot 
teach  the  child  Polish,  French,  or  Danish  with- 
out the  school  and  in  face  of  the  school's 
opposition  ! 

Accordingly,  the  heart  of  the  child  is  divided, 
torn  add  bitter.  It  is  hurt  and  hindered  by 
being  the  bone  of  contention  between  the  home 
and  the  school,  and  by,  having  to  take  sides 
with  the  one  against  the  other,  yes,  of  having 
to  hate  anfd  despise  his  teacher,  this  Govern- 
ment tool,  which  it  feels  as  a  grievance  and  a 
hindrance. 


72          PACIFISM  AND  ITS  ADVERSARIES 

Do  you  not  believe  me,  dear  reader?  Oh, 
it  is  but  too  true.  I  do  not  say  that  it  is 
equally  bad  in  all  schools  in  the  conquered 
provinces,  but  it  is  so  in  most  places.  There 
may  also  be  many  a  German  teacher  who  finds 
that  this  state  of  affairs  is  too  difficult,  and 
cannot  be  called  the  spreading  of  kultur,  and 
who,  therefore,  is  lenient.  But  in  that  case 
he  is  not  a  "  loyalist "  (ffesinnungstuchtig),  and 
he  is  not  a  persona  grata  with  the  German 
Association,  and  his  advancement,  yes,  perhaps 
even  his  tenure  of  office,  is  very  insecure.  For 
just  for  this  purpose  he  is  paid  an,  additional 
salary — die  Ostmarkzulage .  This  is,  of  course, 
blood  and  Judas  money  paid  by  the  Govern- 
ment to  him,  not  for  being  in  the  first  place  an 
educationist  and  the  teacher  of  the  children,  the 
man  in  whom  the  parents  are  to  place  their 
trust,  but  for  being  the  tool  of  the  Government 
and  the  tyrant -apostle  of  Germany. 

No,  honest  and  good -hearted  men  are  abso- 
lutely of  no  use  as  teachers  to  the  German 
Association,  only  creatures  who  can  be  bought, 
Who,  for  miserable  gain's  sake,  and  to  please 
men,  will  sow  evil  seed  in  the  hearts  of  the 
children,  and  wound  the  souls  they  ought  to 
take  care  of.1  Do  you  hot  believe  this?  Then 
you  have  not  read  your  newspapers  properly 

1  Too  strong  ! — Perhaps  in  so  far  as  many  a  man  among 
them  seeks  a  situation  and  receives  his  Ostmarkzulaye 


A  SUPPLEMENT  73 

about  the  Polish  school  strike,  or  (this  is  most 
likely)  your  newspaper  does  not  report  this. 
Your  newspaper  will  bring  high  -  sounding 
reports  of  the  Germanic  spirit  and  its  progress 
in  Ostmark,  Nordmark,  and  Westmark  (untrue 
reports,  for  the  Germanic  spirit  is  not  securing 
an  ascendancy  either  in  Ost,  Nord,  or  West 
mark,  and  it 'will  never  do  so  either,  not  in  this 
way  at  least.  It  is  naturally  and  necessarily 
losing  ground  because  its  procedure  is  morally 
wrong).  But  your  newspaper  does  not  tell 
you  that  it  is  by  means  such  as  these  that  pro- 
gress is  attempted — by  offending  the  little  ones 
of  Jfesus  Christ.  Do  you  not  believe  it?  Hear, 
then,  what  a  German  University  teacher  says 
about  it.  Professor  Dr.  jur.  Walther  Schuck- 
ling  speaks  as  follows  in  his  pamphlet,  "  Das 
Nationalitetten  problem "  (Dresden,  1908,  pp. 
39-40):— 

"  On  principle  only  teachers  who  do  not 
understand  one  word  of  Polish  are  sent  to 
teach  Polish  children,  so  that  no  word  of  Polish 
may  be  heard  in  the  schools.  And  to  these 
teachers,  who  do  not  understand  the  language 
of  the  children,  the  parents  must  surrender 
their  dearest  ones  at  the  tender  age  of  six. 
Picture  the  situation  for  a  moment.  What 

without  clearly  knowing  what  he  is  entering  upon  or 
that  he  has  really  sold  his  soul.  But  how  can  any  man 
remain  once  this  has  become  clear  to  him  ? 


74          PACIFISM  AND  ITS  ADVERSARIES 

would  the  German  mothers  have  said  if  the 
Napoleonic  conqueror  had  made  such  demands? 
Just  picture  the  matter  for  a  moment.  How 
is  the  little  Polish  child  to  excuse  itself  to  its 
teacher,  when,  for  instance,  it  is  late,  when 
teacher  and  child  do  not  understand  one 
another?  Perhaps  before  school  hours  the 
child  has  had  to  run  a  message  for  his  parents 
to  the  doctor  on  account  of  a  sudden  case  of 
illness.  Every  sensible  teacher  will  in  such 
a  case  excuse  it,  but  he  must  in  this,  as  in  a 
thousand  other  dilemmas,  understand  the  child. 
Is  it  not  a  travesty,  of  all  pedagogics,  of  all 
education,  to  let  teacher  and  pupil  speak  in 
different  tongues  and  give  the  elementary 
teaching  (as  Jeutsch  has  described  it  in  '  Die 
Zukunft ' ),  by  means  of  a  kind  of  deaf-and- 
dumb  method  !  The  Frankfurter  Zeitung  has 
recently  even  told  us  that  teachers  in  the  Polish 
districts  who  ane  able  to  master  the  Polish 
language  are  kept  back  from  promotion  for 
this  reason  !  It  is  sheer  madness,  even  if  there 
is  method  in  it  [  *  1st  es  gleich  Waknsinn,  hat  es 
dock  Methode'].  We  are  in  this  respect  far 
worse  than  the  Magyars,  who  only  quite 
recently  have  demanded  that  apart  from  the 
special  teaching  in  the  Hungarian  language,  the 
Saxon  schools  (in  Liebenburgen)  shall  allow 
one  subject  to  be  taught  in  Hungarian.  We 
are  also  far  worse  than  the  Russians,  who  in 


A  SUPPLEMENT  75 

the  Baltic  Provinces  lately-,  on  principle  again, 
have  allowed  the  use  of  the  mother  tongue  in 
the  schools,  and  only  demand  that  certain  sub- 
jects shall  be  taught  in  Russian.  With  us  it  is, 
on  the  other  hand,  only  exceptionally  that 
Polish  is  tolerated  in  the  teaching  of  religion. 
And  even  this  is  not  permitted  in  all  the  classes 
of  the  public  school.  In  many  of  the  lowest 
classes  the  religious  instruction  only  may  be, 
given  in  Polish.  And  even  this,  the  last  trench 
of  the  use  of  Polish  in  the  schools,  was  in 
danger.  For  the  school  strike  started  in  a 
place  where  a  too  zealous  school-inspector 
had  decreed  that  German  must  be  spoken 
in  giving  religious  instruction  even  in  the 
primary  schools.  He  has,  we  suppose,  been 
disowned  by  the  Government,  but  what  if 
the  school  strike  had  not  occurred? "  "  It 
is  clear  how  the  system  of  education  inust 
languish  owing  to  the  teaching  of  Polish 
children  in  German.  .  .  .  How  miserable  the 
results  of  the  teaching  are  in  the  German -Polish' 
school  in  the  Eastmark  niay  be  seen  from 
reports  based  on  his  own  observations  by  the 
Editor  of  the  Christliche  Welt  (1902,  No.  45). 
The  result  of  these  sad  revelations  was  not, 
of  course,  that  the  Government  changed  the 
system,  but,  according  to  what  we  are  told, 
only  that  a  circular  was  issued  angrily  for- 
bidding teachers  in  future  to  admit  any  private 


76          PACIFISM  AND  ITS  ADVERSARIES 

visitors  into  the  schools."  (See  also  Hugo  Ganz, 
"  Die  prens  siche  Polenpolitik,"  Frankfurt  am 
Main,  1907.) 

And  if  we  want  an  example  of  the  rela- 
tion of  the  teaching  profession  to  the  popu- 
lation in  one  of  the  other  German  border 
countries,  we  have  but  to  mention  the  follow- 
ing case.  It  has  been  publicly  and  legally 
proved  before  a  German  law-court  and  acknow- 
ledged and  declared  by  German  judges  in  giving 
judgment  that  a  German  teacher  (Herr  Eager, 
in  Retting,  on  the  island  of  Als)  in  1907  con- 
tinually and  habitually,  during  the  hours  of 
instruction,  referred  to  the  native  population 
in  coarse  and  offensive  terms,  such  as  "  stupid 
Danes,"  "  Jennies,"  "  Danish  dirt  "  (dumme 
Danen,  Hannemann,  danische  Schweinigel), 
etc.  (You  understand  what  it  means  for 
a  successful  legal  proof  of  these  facts  to 
be  established  before  a  Prussian  law-court!) 
The  teacher  is,  of  course,  still  in  office  in 
Retting.  1 

Then  the  child  comes  to  the  priest,  in 
Protestant  districts  to  the  German  priest,  to 
prepare  for  Confirmation. 

There  are  several  German  priests  in  the 
conquered  provinces  who  are,  first  and  fore- 
most, politicians,  and  German  agitators  and 
priests  only  in  the  second  place.  They  attend 
first  to  their  political  meetings,  their  Press 


A   SUPPLEMENT  77 

campaigns,  and  matters  relating  to  coloniza- 
tion, etc.  (Occasionally  they  even  engage  in 
banking  affairs,  in  shady  company-promoting, 
and  in  criminal  jobbery,  as,  for  example,  in 
the  case  of  Herr  Pastor  Jacobsen,1  the  highly 
respected  President  of  the  German  Association, 
"the  chief  president's  right  hand,  the  bulwark 
of  Germanism  in  Scherrebeck.")  And  then 
after  all  this  come  the  duties  of  the  priesthood  2 
— priests,  indeed,  of  whom  it  might  be  said  that 
it  were  better  for  them  that  a  millstone  were 
hanged  round  their  necks,  and  that  they  were 
cast  into  the  sea,  than  that  they  should  offend 
our  little  ones.  But  there  are  also  Prussian 
priests  (fortunately  several)  who  wish  to  give 
the  child  something  really  helpful,  who  feel 
how  the  national  conflicts  prevent  this,  and 
who  would  like  to  find  a  remedy.  So  a  number 
of  priests  in  the  conquered  territory  send,  in 
the  simplicity  of  their  hearts,  a  petition  to  the 
Prussian  Government,  proposing  that  the  child 
in  the  school  might  be  given,  not  only  two  hours' 
religious  instruction  weekly  in  the  mother 
tongue,  but  also  two  hours'  weekly  instruction 

1  One  case  only  of  fallen  greatness. — One  too  many, 
and  one  who  for  many  weary  years  was  an  unspeakable 
offence  to  German  sentiment,  and  against  whom  no  one 
made  a  stand. 

2  This  is  not  true.    It  is  an  unpardonable  generaliza- 
ion. — Agreed.     I  ought  to  have  said  "  in  certain  cases." 


78          PACIFISM  AND   ITS  ADVERSARIES 

in  the  mother  tongue  itself,  so  that  it  might 
have  the  benefit  of  being  prepared  for  Con- 
firmation in  the  mother  tongue.  That  is  very 
kind  of  these  priests,  and  proves  that  their 
Gesinnings  tuchtigkeit  has  not  entirely  suffo- 
cated all  their  Christianity,  and  that  their 
position  as  Apostles  of  Germany  has  not  quite 
made  them  forget  that  they  are  also  the  Apostles 
of  Christ.  But  their  Superintendent  sends  up 
the  petition  with  his  disapproval  ! 

Some  Prussian  Superintendents  are  first  of 
all  servants  of  the  State,  then  servants  of  Christ 
(if  time  can  be  spared  from'  the  duties  of  the 
former  office) ;  they  are  first  politicians,  then 
clergymen  —  first  prelates,  then  Christians  — 
otherwise  they  would  scarcely  become  Super- 
intendents in  a  conquered  province.  The 
Government  peremptorily  refuses  the  petition. 
Then,  for  the  first  time,  and  for  the  second 
time,  and  for  the  third  time,  the  priests  con- 
sider the  situation,  and  ultimately  they  decide 
to  let  the  petition  remain  at  home,  and  this 
is  indeed  also  the  wisest  course.1  They  may 

1  Note  by  the  author  :  It  must  be  added  that  the 
petition  was,  however,  brought  forward  year  after  year 
by  the  lay  members  of  the  Synod,  and  that  at  last  in  the 
year  1912  they  succeeded  in  securing  the  votes  of  many 
of  the  priests  and  even  of  two  of  the  superintendents,  so 
that  it  was  passed  by  the  Synod.  But  no  one  must,  on 
that  account,  believe  that  the  Government  will  take  any 
notice  of  that, 


A  SUPPLEMENT  79 

as  well  follow  it.  Two  hours'  teaching  in  the 
mother  tongue  from  the  German  teacher  who 
has  not  miastered  the  language  himself,  and 
who  during  all  the  other  hours  of  the  week 
zealously  and  servilely  impresses  upon  the  child 
the  poverty  and  the  low  statUvS  of  his  language  ! 
No,  thanks  ! 

The  preparation  for  Confirmation  comes  to 
an  end.  Then  follows  the  Communion,  the  first 
Communion  of  the  child  along  with  its  parents. 
In  German  !  In  German,  in  the  hated  foreign 
language  we  hear  the  words  of  Jesus  to  us 
about  His  Body  and  Blood  which  He  gave  for 
us  for  the  remission  of  our  sins. 

The  forgiveness  of  our  sins  He  hath  indeed 
bought  for  us,  but  not  the  use  of  our  mother 
tongue  in  the  midst  of  a  "  Christian  "  country, 
with  a  national  Church  and  a  State -appointed 
priesthood. 

Are  these  things  actually  true?  Am  I  not 
exaggerating?  Certainly,  if  I  am  a  Roman 
Catholic,  what  has  been  said  does  not  apply. 
Into  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  the  Prussian 
cannot  enter  with  his  German.  But  into  the 
Prussian  State  Church  ! 

Fortunate  Catholics  who  escape  this  travesty 
of  a  "  State  Church  "  where  the  representative 
of  foreign  oppression  stands  in  the  pulpit,  and 
at  the  altar,  and  speaks  about  "  the  great 
German  God,"  and  about  the  duty  of  obeying 


80          PACIFISM  AND  ITS  ADVERSARIES 

the  authorities,  and  of  showing  not  only  out- 
ward obedience  to  them  but  to  bow  the  heart 
as  well  before  them  !  False  doctrine  !  Christ 
teaches  us  to  show  outward  obedience,  to  give 
to  Ca3sar  his  due — but  no  more,  not  our  heart. 
To  our  hearts  he  must  remain  as  distant  as 
the  Roman  Emperor  to  the  disciples  of  Jesus, 
or  as  the  Babylonian  King  to  the  exiled  Jews.1 
There  are  some  Protestant  parishes  (there 
will  soon  be  only  a  few ! )  where  there  are 
still  services  in  the  mother  tongue,  if  not  every 
Sunday,  still  perhaps  every  second  Sunday,  and 
where  the  Communion  is  celebrated  in  the 
mother  tongue.  But  there  are  actually  parishes 
where  the  mother  tongue  is  never  heard  in 
the  church,  and  where  we  are  baptized,  con- 

1  This  is  wrong.  Jesus  is  never  concerned  merely  with 
the  outward,  but  He  certainly  on  this  point  warns  us  to 
cultivate  self-respect  beside  self-mastery.  Further,  Jesus 
spoke  of  the  heathen. — I  cannot  see  that  this  is  wrong. 
Surely  Jesus  would  never  ask  that  His  disciples  should 
show  more  than  outward  obedience  towards  the  Roman 
authorities.  He  would  never  wish  them  to  surrender 
their  hearts — surely  he  would  approve  of  their  hearts 
remaining  as  cold  and  distant  as  the  hearts  of  the  exiled 
Jews  to  the  Babylonian  King.  And  that  Jesus  had  to  do 
with  the  heathen  makes  no  difference  in  my  eyes — except 
this,  that  the  rule  of  oppression  exercised  over  conquered 
nations  may  more  readily  be  excused  in  the  case  of 
heathen  people  than  in  the  case  of  a  Christian  nation. 
(Besides,  neither  Babylonians  nor  Jews  nor  Romans 
attacked  the  nationality  or  language  of  the  Jews.) 


A  SUPPLEMENT  81 

firmed,  offered  Communion,  are  married  and 
buried  in  German,  and  that  even  if  we  are  far 
more  numerous  than  all  the  immigrant  Germans 
in  the  parish,  the  railway,  officials,  the  gate- 
keepers, and  the  postmen,  and  whatever,  else 
they  ail  are.1 

And  what  are  these  church  services,  then,  in 
the  mother  tongue?  A  stingily  measured  alms 
instead  of  our  right !  A  contemptuous  dole 

1  This  is  almost  maliciously  inaccurate. — It  must  be 
acknowledged  that  it  is  not  often  the  case  where  there  is 
a  large  Danish  majority,  but  in  many  places  where  there 
is  a  large  Danish  minority.  In  many  places  a  small 
German  minority,  by  means  of  a  petition  to  the  Govern- 
ment, gains  a  church  service  in  German  first  six  times  a 
year,  then  twelve  times,  then  every  third  Sunday,  at  last 
every  second  Sunday,  until  perhaps  they  cease  of  them- 
selves because  no  one  comes  to  church. 

In  i  this  connection  I  give  a  cutting  from  a  newspaper. 
From  the  parish  of  Norre  Logum  we  read  in  the  Flens- 
borg  paper  :  "  On  New  Year's  Day  the  priest,  after  finish- 
ing his  sermon,  addressed  the  congregation  from  the  pulpit 
as  follows  :  '  I  have  a  complaint  and  a  request  to  make. 
Some  years  ago  German  services  were  introduced  by 
request,  and  these  have  been  held  on  fifteen  occasions 
during  the  year,  but  no  one  attends.  On  the  third  Sunday 
in  Advent,  for  instance,  there  was  only  one  person  present 
with  the  exception  of  a  young  girl  from  the  priest's  house. 
Not  even  those  who  asked  for  these  services  came  to  the 
church.  It  would  have  been  better  to  have  left  things  as 
they  were.  I  now  ask  those  who  understand  a  German 
sermon  to  come.  Otherwise  it  will  be  admitted  that  those 
who  maintain  that  there  is  no  desire  for  these  services 
are  right.'" 

6 


82          PACIFISM  AND  ITS  ADVERSARIES 

from  the  usurper  to  the  rightful  owner  !  '  And 
with  this  we  are  to  be  content  and  grateful ! 

It  is  a  mean-spirited  man  Who  is  content 
with  the  half  of  his  rights  ! 

These  religious  services  conducted  by,  a  man, 
perhaps  an  honest  enough  man  in  his  own  way, 
but  a  man  Who  does  not  know  our  language 
properly,2  who  is  a  stranger  to  us,  who  is  a 
servant  of  the  Government,  but  against  us,  who 
has  to  look  after  our,  souls,  but  who  has  also 
to  Germanize  us  !  Away  with  them  !  Let  us 
'have  Free  Churches  !  Should  we  not  be  able 
to  pay  for  two  kinds  of  priests— a  priest  whom 
we  do  not  know  and  do  not  use,  but  who  gets 
his  ample  official  salary,  and  a  priest  who, 
perhaps,  must  be  content  with  a  smaller  income 
or  who  must  be  willing  to  help  in  several 
parishes,  but  who  belongs  to  us  heart  and  soul, 
and  whose  word  can  in  our  own  souls  find  an 
echo? 

It  is  expensive,  of  course,  to  pay  a  salary, 
to  two  priests  instead  of  to  one.  But  then,  it 

1  This  is  wrong.  The  congregation  is  responsible 
for  this. — I  do  not  understand.  That  the  congregation 
accepts  and  puts  up  with  this  state  of  things  because  it 
can  have  nothing  better  is  a  very  different  thing  from  not 
•wanting  anything  better  and  from  considering  what  it  is 
getting — its  half -rights. 

*  N.B. — This  is  the  case  with  the  majority  of  them. 
They  believe  themselves  that  they  are  fluent  in  our 
language,  but  this  is  a  delusion. 


A  SUPPLEMENT  83 

is  expensive  to  build  churches  which  may,  re- 
main unused  for  four  years  because  the  police 
officer  discovers,  on  the  opening  day,  a  tiny, 
crack  in  the  plaster  of  the  roof,  and  shuts  the 
church  on  account  of  its  "  structural  weak- 
ness "  !  And  we  should  have  to  be  buried  in 
the  State  cemetery,  and  like  suicides,  without 
tolling  of  bells,  as  all  petitions  about  the  laying 
out  of  graveyards  round  the  Free  Churches 
are  being  refused.  But  in  spite  of  all  this  we 
say :  Let  us  have  Free  Churches  !  Our  right, 
our  sacred  and  imperishable  right,  is  this :  to 
'have  our  language  whole  and  full  and  free  in 
the  church  as  well  as  in  the  school.  At  Pente- 
cost God's  Spirit  revealed  Itself  in  many  tongues, 
which  now  are  defunct,  and  which  certainly 
were  not  better  than/  our  tongue,  in  Cretan,  in 
Pamphylian,  and  in  Elamite,  but  the  Prussian 
Government  thinks  that  our  language  was  not 
included  in  the  Pentecostal  miracle.1  Into  more 
than  four  hundred  tongues  has  the  Bible  been 
translated,  even  into  the  meanest  and  poorest 
negro  language.  And  when  the  missionary  goes 
out  to  a  savage  people,  what  else  is  his  first 
work  but  to  learn  the  language  of  the  people 
in  order  to  preach  to  them  in  the  mother 
tongue  and  to  fulfil  the  Pentecostal  miracle? 
And  what  is  their  next  task  but  to  educate 
and  train  native  pastors  and  teachers  to  take 

1  Good.     • 


84          PACIFISM  AND   ITS  ADVERSARIES 

the  place  of  the  missionary?  Why,  even  the 
German  Protestant  Mission  in  the  South  Sea 
Islands  goes  to  work  in  this  way,  but  we  are 
worse  off  than  Polynesians,  negroes,  and  bush- 
men  ! 

In  Berlin  there  is  a  French,  an  English,  a 
Russian  Church,  etc.,  for  the  subjects  of  these 
various  nations,  to  enable  them  to  hear  the 
Word  of  God  in  their  own  language,  although 
in  a  foreign  country.  And  the  German  Govern- 
ment sees  that  there  are  German  churches  in 
London,  Paris,  Copenhagen — yes,  in  Calcutta, 
and  in  Nagasaki,  but  in  our  churches  a  foreign 
language  is  spoken  1 

St.  Paul  was  to  the  Jews  a  Jew,  to  the 
Greeks  a  Greek.  Our  priests  do  not  seem  to 
agree  with  him.  It  is  a  difficult  and  even 
painful  position  for  an  honest  and  good  man 
to  be  a  priest  or  a  teacher  in  a  conquered  land. 
We  recognize  it,  and  we  pdty  them,  for  there 
are  really  honest  and  good  men  among  them. 
But  I  have  a  good  piece  of  advice  to  give 
them  when  they  feel  the  desperate  difficulty 
of  their  position,  and  sigh  because  they  are 
not  able  to  be  anything  for  the  people  who 
are  feeding  them.1  I  have  a  good  piece  of 

*  They  bear  a  good  many  vicarious  sufferings  for  the 

oppressed Must  be  admitted  to  a  certain  degree.     See 

later.  Such  strong  statements  wrong  these  men.  And 
yet  why  do  they  come  among  us  ?  What  they  ought 


A  SUPPLEMENT  85 

advice  to  them.  "  Stay  away, !  "  I  say.  "  Why 
do  you  come  here?  Go  back  again  to  das 
grosse  Vaterland,  and  leave  us  in  peace  in 
our  small  native  country." 

No  Christian  priest  can,  with  a  good  con- 
science, try  to  convert  a  foreign  people  l  against 
their  will  and  wishes,  or  preach  the  Word  of 
God  to  them  in  a  language  which'  is  not  theirs, 
and  which  they  do  not  wish  to  hear.  For  he 
usurps  the  place  of  one  of  their  own  people* 

to  say  to  the  people  they  cannot,  namely,  that  they  are 
being  unjustly  oppressed,  that  they  are  suffering  great 
wrongs  which  they  must  bear,  however,  patiently  and 
obediently,  and,  like  all  other  trials,  let  purification  and 
spiritual  growth  be  the  outcome  of  their  sufferings  (after 
the  manner  of  the  Jewish  people).  This  is  what  the  con- 
gregation have  a  right  to  hear,  because  it  is  the  only  view 
which  makes  it  possible  for  it  to  feel  reconciled  to  the 
conditions  and  to  see  them  in  their  proper  light — the 
only  way  for  a  Christian  person  to  regard  them.  But  no 
German  State  preacher  can  say  this.  And  yet  it  is  only 
on  this  condition  that  a  proper  understanding  and  a 
proper  relation  can  be  established  between  him  and  his 
congregation.  As  circumstances  are  he  will,  in  the  eyes 
of  the  congregation,  always  "  belong  to  the  other  side." 

1  Most  of  the  teachers  and  clergymen  are  natives  of 
Northern  Sleswig,  sons  of  Danish  peasants, — Can  a  single 
Polish  teacher  be  found  in  German  Poland  ?  And  can  a 
single  openly  Danish  or  Danish-minded  teacher  or  clergy- 
man be  found  in  Northern  Sleswig  ?  Danish-speaking, 
perhaps,  perhaps  some  of  the  children  of  "  Home 
Germans,"  but  openly  Danish  and  really  Danish- 
minded  ?  No  I 


86          PACIFISM  AND   ITS  ADVERSARIES 

And  no  Christian  teacher  can,  with  a  good 
conscience,  seek  a  position  among  a  foreign 
people,  and  against  their  will  and  wishes  teach 
their  children  in  a  language  which  is  not  theirs, 
and  which  they  do  not  wish  to  hear.  For  he 
usurps  the  place  of  one  of  their  own  people. 
Once  Christianity  really  became  the  ruling 
power  in  their  hearts,  and  once  they  really  saw 
the  situation  clearly  as  it  is,  then  conscience 
would  compel  each  of  them,  priest  and  teacher, 
if  they  were  truly  Christian,  to  throw  up  his 
place.  Now,  then,  we  warn  them :  We  have 
not  sent  for  you.  We  do  not  want  you.  We 
want  priests  and  teachers  of  our  own  nation, 
the  right  that  even  Negroes,  Eskimos,  and  Red 
Indians  enjoy.  Go  away,  and  do  not  desecrate 
all  that  is  most  sacred  to  us  by  using  it  as  a 
means  of  worldly  service.  Will  you,  a  Christian 
man,  let  yourself  be  hired  by  any  Government 
whatsoever  to  aid  it  in  Germanizing,  and  use 
the  Word  of  God  and  your  priestly  vocation  for 
this  purpose?  All  Germanizing  by  force  is 
morally  wrong,  but  doubly  so  for  a  priest  or 
a  teacher. 

It  is  a  natural  human  right,  a  sacred  right 
belonging  to  every,  nation,  to  have  priests  and 
teachers  from  its  own  midst,  of  its  own 
language,  of  its  own  mind.  It  is  a  sacred 
right  belonging  to  every  man  to  decide  about 
the  education  of  his  own  child,  to  have  full 


A  SUPPLEMENT  87 

liberty  to  teach  his  child  according  to  his  own 
mind  in  his  own  language.  If  the  laws  en- 
croach on  these  rights,  then  the  laws  are  illegal 
and  sinful,  and  transgress  against  the  laws  of 
God.1  In  such  circumstances  we  cannot  give 
unto  CaBsar  what  belongs  to  Ca3sar  without 
withholding  from  God  that  which  is  His. 

But  if  we  are  told,  "  Well,  then,  train  your 
priests  and  teachers  from  among  yourselves 
in  your  own  language,  ,and  let  them  seek  office 
among  your  people  " — thanks  !  t)oes  any  one 
believe  that  one  of  our  young  people  trained  as 
a  priest,  or  as  a  teacher  or  a  lawyer,  or  any- 
thing else  at  a  German  University,  would  be 
able  to  get  a  post  among  us?2  In  Westphalia 

1  But  what  if  the  individual  through  inadvertence 
encroaches  on  the  rights  of  the  State  ?  No  family  can 
live  without  the  legal  protection  of  the  State.  To  this  end 
the  State  educates  its  citizens,  and  a  certain  minimum  of 
citizen  education  is  enforced  (knowledge  of  languages  for 
the  military,  for  the  law-court,  etc.}.  But  as  soon  as  the 
authorities  become  overbearing  and  refuse  to  tolerate  the 
mother  tongue  side  by  side  with  this,  then  we  are  to  blame. 
— Certainly,  if  the  State  will  not  go  the  whole  way,  and 
recognize  that  it  has  no  right  to  rule  over  these  people, 
but  should  liberate  them  and  give  them  back  to  their 
own  kith  and  kin.  This  should  be  the  Christian  duty 
of  the  State. 

9  Not  as  a  lawyer,  but  priest  or  teacher,  certainly. 
— Yes,  on  paper.  But  he  cannot  in  reality,  as  he  cannot 
accept  the  conditions  which  await  him,  or  for  a  moment 
think  of  complying  with  the  demands  made  upon  him. 


88          PACIFISM  AND   ITS  ADVERSARIES 

or  in  Brandenburg  he  might,  perhaps,  but  not 
among  us,  where  he  just  wants  to  be  ;  and  he 
does  not  care  to  be  in  Westphalia  or  Branden- 
burg, and  we  do  not  wish  to  have  him  there 
as  he  is  Danish  and  not  German.  No,  that  way, 
is  barred. 

And  it  means  a  great  deal  to  a  people  that 
the  path  of  higher  education  is  barred.1  That 
is  also  one  of  the  means  by  which  the  Prussians 
give  us  higher  Kultur,  by  trying  to  prevent 
our  young  people  from  getting  an  academic 
training.  That  none  of  our  people  can  become 
a  gate-keeper,  or  a  railway  conductor,  or  a 
midwife,  or  a  hospital  doctor,  or  indeed  an 
official  of  any  kind  in  the  service  of  the  State 
or  of  the  Commune,  that  doubtless  may  be  a 
matter  of  merely  economic  significance  for  us  ; 
it  may  hurt  and  vex  us  to  see  all  these  imported 
strangers  whom  we  have  to  maintain.  But 
that  an  academic  career  is  barred  to  us 
(because  an  official  career  is  barred  to 
us  in  our  own  country),  that  is  a  matter 
of  other  and  still  greater  importance  to 
us  because  it  diminishes  our  chances  of 
culture. 

But,  thank  God  !    at  the  same  time  Prussia 

opens  other  sources  of  culture  for  us.     There 

is  an  immense  power  in  burning  indignation, 

in  the  sense  of  being  wronged,   in  suffering, 

1  Not  true  ! — See  below.    Think  of  the  Poles. 


A  SUPPLEMENT  89 

yes,  also  strength  in  hatred  and  in  scorn,1 
strength  which  drives  us  to  work  with  redoubled 
zeal  for  ourselves,  seeing  that  the  State  bars 
to  us  its  avenues  to  higher  things,  to  delve 
more  deeply  into  the  culture  of  our  own  race 
so  that  we  may  not  fall  behind  our  oppressors 
in  culture,  but  only  in  brutality. 

It  was  in  passionate  indignation,  in  the  sense 
of  being  wronged,  in  suffering,  in  hatred,  and 
in  scorn  that  Prussia  found  strength,  in  1813, 
against  the  French  conqueror.  And  it  is  exactly 
from  these  same  sources  of  power  that  we 
are  drawing  our  strength  against  the  Prussian 
conqueror,  whose  yoke  is  so  much  heavier, 
whose  brutality  is  far  greater  than  was  ever 
that  of  Napoleon.  All  this  is  inevitable,  until 
it  dawns  some  day  on  humanity  that  to  self- 
conscious  and  civilized  nations  the  word 
"  conqueror  "  is  a  term,  not  of  honour  but  of 
shame  ;  that  God  has  made  the  nations,  and 
that  each  one  of  them  has  a  right  to  live  its 
own  life  unmolested  by  others  ;  that  Germanizing 
by  force,  Prussianizing,  Magyarizing,  etc.,  ethi- 
cally regarded,  must  be  placed  in  the  category 
of  theft  and  murder. 

So  much  with  regard  to  the  school  and  the 
Church.  Need  I  mention  the  law-courts?  Need 
I  waste  many  words  on  the  Prussian  judges 
and  police  magistrates,  who  judge  us,  fine  us 

1  Good. 


90          PACIFISM  AND  ITS  ADVERSARIES 

and  imprison  us  when  we  sing  our  old  songs, 
when  we  paint  our  gates  or  doors  with  colours 
which  accidentally  happen  to  be  in  our  old 
flag,  who  exile  our  children  and  our  servants 
for  offences  which  others  have  committed,  who 
put  our  editors  and  parliamentary  representa- 
tives in  prison  on  paltry  grounds,  Who  forbid 
us  to  erect  dwelling-houses  on  our  own  land, 
and  force  us  to  live  in  earthen  caves  and  gipsy 
caravans,  and  who  come  and  carry  off  our 
stove  if  we  erect  one  there?  * 

Do  you  realize  that  it  is  a  punishable  offence 
to  have  a  red -brown  gate  in  a  whitewashed 
wall?  that  if  I  paint  the  name  of  my  property 
which  it  has  held  for  a  thousand  years,  on  my 
wagon,  the  law  comes  down  on  me  and 
threatens  me  with  a  fine  if  I  do  not  erase  it 
at  once  and  put  the  new  Prussian  name  of 
the  farm  on  instead,  a  name  which  is  manu- 
factured and  made  up  by  the  managers,  and 
which  often  is  only  a  senseless  and  silly  per- 
version of  the  right  one?2  (How  would  an 
English  squire  like  to  get  Sandringham  changed 
into  Sonderhaven,  or  his  old  town  Avith  its 
ancient  English  name  called  Friederichshohe 

1  ?  ? — Will  be  proved  later. 

"  ? — My  statement  cannot  be  questioned  ;  here  is  an  ex- 
ample. "  Aabenraa  "  etymologically  and  from  a  scientific 
point  of  view  makes  very  good  sense,  while  "  Apenrade  " 
makes  none  ;  cf.  "  Graasten  " — "  Gravenstein,"  etc. 


A  SUPPLEMENT  91 

or  Wilhelmsort?)  I  do  not  understand  at  all 
why,  I  myself  am  allowed  to  keep  jny  name, 
as  it  is  absolutely  un-German  in  its  .sound  ! 

But  all  these  are  but  petty  grievances  in 
comparison  with  intolerable  cases  of  tyranny 
in  matters  of  far  greater  importance. 

The  most  flagrant,  if  perhaps  not  the  most 
important,  example  of  such  a  pure  breach  of 
the  law,  and  of  their  own  promises  ,and'  of 
their  own  enactments,  is  to  be  found  in  the 
treatment  of  the  North  Sleswig  "  Optionists  " — 
that  is,  of  the  natives  of  Sleswig  who,  accord- 
ing to  the  right  guaranteed  to  them  in  para- 
graph 19  of  the  Treaty  of  Vienna,  had  declared 
in  favour  of  Denmark,  and  concerning  whom 
it  is  decreed  in  the  above-mentioned  paragraph 
that  they  "  must  not  on  account  of  their  choice 
be  interfered  with  by  either  side  regarding  their 
persons  or  regarding  their  properties  situated 
in  the  respective  States,"  likewise  that  they 
also  "  retain  their  rights  of  nationality  in  the 
Kingdom  of  Denmark  as  well  as  in  the 
Duchies." 

My  readers  need  not  be  afraid  that  I  am 
going  to  weary  them  with  a  long  explanation 
of  the  Optionist  question.1  It  is  sufficient  to 
say  here  that  Prussia  has  on  every  opportunity 

1  A  statement  of  this  can  be  found  in  a  book  by 
Franz  von  Jessen,  "  Manuel  historique  de  la  question  de 
Slesvig,"  Copenhagen,  1906,  the  Gyldendal  bookstore. 


92          PACIFISM  AND  ITS  ADVERSARIES 

delighted  in  exiling  these  Optionists  and  their 
children  (numbering  tens  of  thousands ),  in  spite 
of  all  promises,  treaties,  and  later  conventions, 
not  when  the  Optionists  themselves  have  been 
found  guilty  of  pro  -  Danish  agitation  (an 
Optionist  would  take  good  care  not  to  commit 
himself  in  that  way),  but  when  their  brothers, 
or  brothers-in-law,  or  cousins,  or  even  persons 
who  were  only  neighbours  or  friends  of  theirs 
from  the  same  town  or  parish  were  directly 
concerned.  If  a  Danish  meeting  has  been  held 
in  a  parish,  or  a  social  excursion  has  been 
conducted  from  a  parish  into  Denmark,  or  if 
anything  of  that  kind  takes  place,  then  the 
whole  parish  is  punished  by  the  exile  of  one 
or  more  of  the  Optionists,  although  they  may 
not  have  had  anything  to  do  with  the  cause  of 
offence.  This  is  a  recognized  principle,  and 
admitted  as  such  publicly  and  in  plain  words 
by  high  Prussian  officials. 

I  wish  to  tell  Prussian  officials  clearly  and 
distinctly,  and  in  a  manner  perfectly  intellig- 
ible, how  we  regard  such  acts  (of  course  not 
in  Sleswig  only  but,  as  we  shall  see  later,  also 
in  Poland  and  Alsace-Lorraine).  If  one  could 
imagine  the  impossible  case  of  my  being 
challenged  to  a  duel  by  the  Prussian  Land- 
rath  in  Sonderborg  (I  am  not  supposing  so 
ridiculous  a  case  in  order  to  show  my  attitude 
to  the  duel  question,  but  only  cite  a  test  that 


A  SUPPLEMENT  93 

will  appeal  specially  to  a  Prussian),  I  should 
in  that  case  turn  my  back  on  him  with  contempt 
and  say :  "  I  cannot  consider  you  a  satisfactory 
person  to  fight.  You  have  in  cold  blood,  and 
on  your  own  responsibility,  torn  an  orphan 
girl  of  eighteen  from  her  old  grandparents,  and 
from  her  home,  and  have  exiled  her  from  her 
country,  giving  her  only  twenty-four  hours' 
warning,  and,  mark  well,  not,  as  you  yourself 
said,  because  she  had  given  offence  in  any  way, 
but  because  her  grandfather  was  pro -Danish. 
Such  conduct  stains  a  man's  honour,  and  will 
embitter,  we  hope,  his  dying  hour." 

[The  young  girl  (Helene  Reimers)  is  des- 
perate, refuses  to  leave,  is  conducted  by  police 
over  the  border,  returns  next  day,  is  arrested, 
imprisoned  for  a  couple  of  days,  and  after  this 
punishment  she  is  again  conducted  over  the 
border.  Bravo,  Herr  Landrath  !  ] 

These  banishments  have  happened  by  the 
thousand  to  people  who  have  lived  all  their 
lives  in  the  country— to  grown-up  people  and 
to  children,  to  men  and  women,  to  old  and 
young,  to  sick  and  aged— yes,  e^en  to  women 
lying  in  their  beds  in  confinement. 

Then  just  two  more  examples,  mainly  from 
the  regime  of  Herr  von  Roller : — 

A  poor  widow  gets  an  order  to  quit  within 
twenty-four  hours,  with  her  daughter,  twelve 
years  of  age,  Who  is  dying  from  meningitis. 


94          PACIFISM  AND   ITS  ADVERSARIES 

When  she  arrives  at  the  Danish  border  station 
she  must  wait  several  hours  before  she  is  trans- 
ported to  a  poorhouse,  as  the  Danish  authori- 
ties have  not  been  warned  of  their  arrival  ! 
Two  days  later  the  child  dies. 

A  girl  of  sixteen,  an  Optionist  child  herself, 
but  having  two  brothers  who  were  naturalized, 
after  serving  their  time  in  the  Prussian  Army, 
was  told  to  leave  the  country,  within  twenty- 
four  hours.  As  a  reason  it  was  explained  that 
she  had  gone  from  the  kindness  of  her  heart 
to  help  her  neighbours,  whose  servants  had 
been  exiled. 

A  bedridden  Optionist  sixty-nine  years  of 
age,  with  a  sick  wife  also  sixty-nine  years 
old,  and  a  grown-up  daughter,  were  deported. 
Even  their  German  neighbours  pleaded  for 
them  with  thte  magistrate,  but  in  vain.  As  a 
reason  it  was  stated  that  their,  two  grown-up 
naturalized  sons  had  taken  part  in  a  Danish 
electioneering  meetingi.  i 

Until  1898  sons  of  Optionists,  born  in 
Sleswig,  were  enrolled  as  soldiers  and 
naturalized  when  they;  came  up  for  their 
military  training.  Yon  Roller  introduced  the 
practice  of  cashiering'  them  and  exiling  them1. 
As  a  consequence  we  come  across  many  in- 
stances of  the  eldest  son  having  been  a  Prussian 
soldier  while  the  younger  one  has  been  exiled, 
and  has  entered  the  Danish  Army.  In  many 


A  SUPPLEMENT  95 

places  the  old  parents  are  now  living  all  alone 
on  the  farm  which  has  been  in  the  family  for 
generations  While  all  the  children  are  exiled, 
all  because,  in  1864,  the  father,  trusting  the 
promises  of  the  Prussian  State,  and  relying  on 
a  Treaty  drawn  up  in  the  name  of  the  Trinity, 
exercised  his  option  in  favour  of  Denmark, 
and  hoped  thereby  to  esqape  the  Prussian  Con- 
scription. 

But  the  cup  is  not  yet  full.  No,  if  they 
want  to  get  rid  of  a  man  with  Danish' 
sympathies,  and  if  he  is  not  an  Optionist,  they 
make  him  one,  should  other  means  fail,  by, 
buying  false  witnesses.  People  Who  had  never 
been  Optionists  were  declared  by  Herr  von 
Roller  to  be  so,  and  their  children  had  to  quit. 
There  are  many  examples  of  this  having  been 
done,  even  to  persons  who*  had  taken  p-arfc  in  the 
campaign  of  1870-71  on  the  German  side,  and 
who  had  got  the  war  medal.  In  these  cases 
the  authorities  declared  that  the  drafting  of 
those  men  for  military  service  was  due  to  a 
misunderstanding !  Nay,  more,  even  if  the 
father  had  been  through  the  campaign  and  the 
son  had  later  served  his  time  in  the  German 
Army,  still  the  authorities  exiled  the  son  as 
the  child  of  an  Optionist,  so  that  there  might 
be  no  one  to  take  over  the  family  property. 

And  to  crown  all,  the  officials  of  the  Adminis- 
tration do  not  respect  the  law-courts,  not  even 


96          PACIFISM  AND   ITS  ADVERSARIES 

the  decisions  of  the  German  High  Court.  Do 
not  imagine  that  a  man  can  feel  secure  when 
he  holds  a  German  High  Court  decree  declaring 
him  to  be  a  German  citizen.  The  Landr.athl 
can,  despite  this,  quite  easily  exile  him  as  "  an 
Optionist "  (e.g.  the  case  of  Finnemann).  In 
a  few  individual  cases  the  order  of  exile  has 
been  successfully  appealed  against  and  nulli- 
fied by  the  High  Court.  In  those  cases  the 
authorities  have  lacked  the  courage  to  renew 
the  order  of  exile,  but  they  have  shown  their 
power  and  their  ill-will  by  striking  the  names 
of  the  persons  in  question  off  the  list  of  voters, 
and  by  depriving  them  of  all  rights  as  citizens. 
But,  as  a  rule,  it  is  impossible  to  get  an  order 
of  exile  repealed.1 

And  in  order  to  make  an  Optionist  of  ,a 
man  they  do  not  disdain  the  help  of  bribed 
witnesses.  The  Sheriff  in  Skaer^ack,  Winther 
von  Adlerslugel,  wished  to  make  a  certain  Herr 
Timmermann  an  Optionist,  and  stated  in  a 
letter,  which  fell  into  the  wrpng  hands,  that 
he  would  place  the  sum  of  2,000  marks  (from 
whose  purse,  we  wonder!)  at  the  disposal  of 
a  certain  shoemaker  if  Jie,  no  matter  whether 

1  Bank-manager  Miiller  in  Skaerback  was  exiled  by  the 
Administrative  Council ;  therefore  he  was  recognized  by 
the  ordinary  law-court  as  a  Prussian  subject ;  but  never- 
theless he  was  deprived  of  his  political  rights  and  declared 
an  exile.  (Author's  note.) 


A   SUPPLEMENT  97 

he  "  quite  remembered  the  fact  or  not,"  would 
declare  on  his  oath  that  Timhiermann  had 
resided  for  a  considerable  time  in  Denmark, 
about  thirty-eight  years  before  ! 

Also  in  the  Finnemann  case  it  has  been 
clearly,  proved  that  the  authorities  paid  wit- 
nesses to  give  false  evidence,  and  that  it  was 
through  their;  instrumentality  that  they  gained 
their  end.  '  \ 

In  both  cases  the  truth  might  easily  have 
been  brought  to  light,  and  legal  proof  given 
before  a  German  law-court.  But  all  attempts 
stranded  on  the  repeated  refusal  of  the  Courts 
to  deal  with  the  case.  And  in  consequence  of 
these  acts  of  "  justice,"  fanner  Finnemann 
has  for  years  lived  an  exile  across  the 
border. 

When  this  policy  of  the  making  and  exiling 
of  Optionists  does  not  suffice,  other  resources 
are  used.  Listen  to  this  : — 

In  order;  to  compel  Sleswig  children  who 
are  attending  secondary  schools  in  Denmark 
to  return,  the  first  thing  is  to  exile  the  Optionists 
in  the  affected  parishes.  If  this  does  not  suffice, 
the  parents  in  question  are  deprived  of  their 
parental  authority  over  their  children,  and 
guardians  favourably  disposed  to  Germany  are 
appointed  !  But  the  children  simply  refuse  to 
obey  their  new  guardians  and  their  orders  to 

return.      At  last,   however,   a   decree   of   this 

7 


98          PACIFISM  AND   ITS  ADVERSARIES 

kind  has  been  reversed  by  the  High'  Court 
of  Leipzig,  which  declares,  in  opposition  to 
the  verdict  of  the  Landrath,  that  it  is  not 
an  "  immoral "  act  to  send  a  child  to  a 
Danish  school. 

To  cite  another  case :  A  widow  in  the  coun- 
try with  ten  children  gets  her  eldest  boy 
apprenticed  in  a  Danish  newspaper  office.  On 
account  of  this  she  is  deprived  of  her  parental 
authority,  over  all  the  other  nine  children, 
her  worst  personal  enemy  is  appointed  as  their, 
guardian,  a  "  political "  chimney-sweeper,,  who 
takes  the  boy  away  from  his  situation,  and 
places  'him  elsewhere  in  good  German  sur- 
roundings. Here,  too,  the  case  has  to  be 
carried  right  up  to  the  High  Court  before 
the  judgment  is  reversed,  after  a  year  and 
a  day. 

[It  is  superfluous  to  add  that  all  Optionists 
are  not  treated  like  this,  but  that  their  political 
bias  is  the  decisive  factor.  The  former 
Chancellor,  Furst  Bulow,  is,  for  instance,  the 
son  of  an  Optionist,  as  his  father  after  the  war 
in  1867  decided  for  Denmark  ;  but  he  has  so 
far  never  been  molested  for  that  reason.]  * 

This,  then,  is  the  German  idea  of  right  and 
culture.  This  is  what  is  understood  by  German- 
izing !  And  the  men  who  lend  themselves  as 
creatures  to  do  this  dirty  work  are  called  gesin- 

1  Oood. 


A  SUPPLEMENT  99 

nungsttichtige,  and  the  champions  of  German 
culture  in  nord,  east,  or  west-mark.1 

A  special  account  has  been  given  of  the  con- 
dition of  the  Danes  in  Sleswig  and  of  the 
Optionist  question,  because  these  two  things 
furnish  particularly  flagrant  and  amazing 
examples  of  Prussian  policy.  But  do  not 
suppose  for  a  moment  that  you  have  heard 
the  worst.  Listen  to  what  follows : — 

In  the  first  place,  the  evictions  and  exile 
are  not  confined  to  Sleswig.  In  Poland  they 
even  went  so  far,  in  November  1907,  as  to 
evict  a  boy  of  four  years  of  age.2 

Need  I  mention  the  pass-tyranny  in  Alsace- 

1  The  author  of  this  Supplement  has  not  experienced 
personally  the  last  phase  in  the  North  Sleswig  fight 
for  nationality,  the  persecution  of  the  "  homeless." 
Otherwise  he  would  surely  have  directed  attention 
also  to  this  point  :  that  among  other  things  a  premium 
is  put  upon  illegitimacy  in  that  the  illegitimate  child 
of  a  "  homeless "  man  inherits  its  mother's  Prussian 
rights  as  a  German  citizen  and  is  secure  from  persecution, 
while  the  child  is  "  homeless "  like  the  father  if  the 
parents  marry.  Those  two  thousand  to  three  thousand 
"  homeless  "  persons  in  Sleswig,  all  born  there,  as  children 
of  Optionists,  have  nowhere  any  right  as  citizens,  neither 
in  Prussia  nor  in  any  other  land.  They  can,  therefore, 
only  be  exiled  in  general.  They  are  fined  for  not  obeying 
the  order  of  exile,  and  are  put  in  prison  once,  twice, 
thrice,  four  times,  until  they  leave  the  country  at  last. 
(Note  by  the  Editor.) 

a    2    1 


Lorraine?  There,  too,  the  police  escort  the 
sons  and  daughters  over  the  border  again  when 
they  try  to  rush  home  without  a  special 
permit  to  their  parents'  deathbed.  Often, 
too,  they  are  refused  permission  to  be  present, 
not  only,  at  the  deathbed  but  also  at  the 
funeral. 

There,  too,  the  French  language  is  pro- 
scribed, and  its  use  forbidden  even  on  tomb- 
stones.1 

In  Berlin  a  hairdresser  may,  call  himself 
Coiffeur,  but  not  so  in  Strassburg.  There  the 
police  have  carried  their  zeal  so  far  as  to  con- 
fiscate handbills  which  intimated,  in  French, 
that  such  and  such  a  Professor  would  lecture 
on  the  debt  of  culture  to  Richard  Wagner.* 

1  No,  only  political  sentiments  f 

*  I  need  only  remind  you  of  the  preliminaries  to  the 
demonstrations  in  January  1911.  A  couple  of  months 
beforehand  the  president  of  the  Franco-National  Sport 
Association  intimated  to  the  Metz  police  that  they 
intended  having  a  concert  on  the  8th  of  January.  As 
he  did  not  receive  an  answer  he  went  to  the  police 
president,  where  he  was  requested  to  send  in  the  pro- 
gramme of  the  concert.  This  was  done  at  once.  But  the 
police  now  demanded  a  printed  programme.  Also  this 
request  was  complied  with.  Some  days  later  the  presi- 
dent got  word  that  the  French  text  must  be  translated 
into  German  and  then  sent  to  the  police  president.  And 
at  last,  on  the  5th  of  January,  three  days  before  the 
concert,  the  president  was  sent  for  by  the  police  president 
and  was  told  that  the  police  considered  the  concert  a 


A  SUPPLEMENT  101 

But  why  labour  these  details?  Examples 
from  any  one  conquered  province  hold  good 
for  all.  There  is  no  difference  of  treatment ; 
it  is  ever  the  brutal  grip  on  the  throat,  the 
clenched  fist  before  the  face  is  ever  the  same. 
If  examples  are  wanted  of  the  Germanizing 
campaign  in  other  places,  we  need  only  mention 
that  in  the  provinces  of  Posen,  West  Prussia, 
East  Prussia,  Silesia,  and  in  the  districts  of 

public  demonstration  and  the  list  of  members  of  the 
association  must  be  handed  in. 

The  president  of  the  association  found  this  rather  stiff 
— first  to  have  the  matter  dragged  out  by  all  kinds  of 
pretexts,  and  then  at  the  last  moment  to  get  such  an 
unreasonable  demand.  But  the  police  maintained  their 
claim.  The  president  now  tried  to  apply  to  the  police 
president's  superior  officer,  who  gave  him  a  Solomon's 
answer  to  the  effect  that  the  society  did  not  need  police 
permission  to  hold  a  private  concert,  but  that  the  police 
president  had  informed  him  that  this  was  a  public 
performance.  It  was  clear  that  the  society  was  the  object 
of  petty  persecution  by  the  police,  that  they  did  not  dare 
to  forbid  the  concert,  but  that  they  would  as  far  as 
possible  place  insuperable  difficulties  in  the  way.  The 
president  and  the  other  members  of  the  committee 
maintained,  however,  that,  according  to  the  law,  they 
had  a  right  to  hold  the  concert  and  that  the  police  could 
not  demand  the  list  of  members,  and  they,  therefore, 
persisted  in  proceeding  with  the  concert  as  advertised. 

On  the  Sunday  evening  a  couple  of  thousand  people 
were  gathered  in  the  concert-hall.  The  orchestra  had 
played  an  introductory  march,  and  it  was  just  going  to 
start  the  real  programme  when  a  police  officer  appeared 


102        PACIFISM  AND   ITS  ADVERSARIES 

Frankfurt-am -Oder,  Stettin  and  Ooslin— that  is, 
the  Polish  districts — it  is  necessary  in  every 
single  case  for  the  plans  of  buildings  not  only 
to  be  approved  by  the  municipal  authorities, 
but  to  be  passed  also  by  a  State  president, 
Who  must  certify  that  the  proposed  building 
will  not  in  any,  way  'contravene  the  German 
law  regulating  the  construction  of  such  build- 
ings. For  many  years  only  Germans  have  been 
able  to  get  this  permission  from  the  State 

at  the  entrance  and  ordered  the  concert  to  be  stopped  at 
once.  The  chairman  explained  to  him  that  this  was  not 
a  public  demonstration,  and  that  only  ticket-holders  had 
been  admitted ;  further,  he  asked  all  who  were  not 
members  of  the  society  to  leave  the  hall,  but  no  one 
stirred.  The  police  officer  stuck  to  his  guns,  but  the 
audience  demanded  that  the  concert  should  proceed. 
The  conductor  made  ready  to  begin,  but  he  was  stopped 
by  the  police,  who  seized  hold  of  him  and  held  him  fast. 
Of  course  this  caused  a  great  tumult  in  the  crowded 
hall.  At  the  request  of  the  chairman  the  assembly  dis- 
persed, however,  but  the  demonstrations  were  continued 
in  the  street.  Several  thousand  people,  with  the  banner 
of  the  society  carried  at  the  head  of  the  procession, 
marched  through  the  streets  singing  French  and  Italian 
songs.  Stopping  at  the  monument  of  Marechal  Neye,  one 
of  the  members  of  the  society  leaped  upon  the  pedestal 
of  the  monument  and  made  a  speech  ending  with  a  "  Vive 
la  France !  "  and  singing  the  Marseillaise,  they  continued 
the  march.  In  the  meantime  the  police  had  called  out 
the  military,  who  met  them  with  fixed  bayonets.  In  the 
melee  several  people  were  wounded  and  a  score  of  the 
demonstrators  were  arrested.  (Note  by  the  Editor.) 


A  SUPPLEMENT  103 

president.  (Confirmation  of  this  from  the 
'German  side  may  be  found,  among  other;  places, 
in  a  book  by.  Professor  Walther  Schucking, 
Dr.  Jurisp.,  "Das  Nation alitaten  problem.")  It 
is,  as  a  rule,  impossible  for  a  Pole  to  get  per- 
mission to  build  a  dwelling-house.  He  may 
build  stables  and  barns,  fori  these  are  not 
mentioned  in  the  law,  but  not  a  dwelling-house. 
If,  nevertheless,  he  does  venture  to  do  so, 
examples  can  be  given  of  police  officers  carry- 
ing away  windows  and  doors  so  as  to  make 
the  house  uninhabitable.  At  the  beginning  of 
this  campaign  people  were  at  first  allowed  to 
build  the  dwelling-houses,  and  afterwards  the 
proprietors  were  forbidden  to  use  them.  The 
house  stands  empty,  and  must  not  be  entered, 
while  the  would-be  inhabitants  sleep  in  the 
barn  or  the  stable.  The  temptation  to  steal 
into  the  dwelling-house  at  nigjht  'is  great,  of 
course,  but  to  do  so  involves  a  fine.  And  if 
the  police  suspect  anything  of  this  kind,  they 
spread  fine  sand  round  the  house  in  the  even- 
ing so  as  to  be  able  to  find  footprints  next 
morning.  (Report  from  the  correspondent  of 
'Gazeta  Polska,  from  the  village  Mielzyn  in 
Posen,  October  1903.) 

A  Pole,  by  the  name  of  Drzymella,  had 
bought  a  few  acres  of  land  near  Posen,  and 
had  built  a  stable  and  a  barn  upon  it ;  but  it 
was  quite  impossible  for  him1  to  get  permission 


104        PACIFISM  AND  ITS  ADVERSARIES 

to  build  a  dwelling-house.  At  last  he  bought 
a  closed  gipsy  caravan  and  lived  in  this  with' 
his  family.  It  was  remarkable  that  the  police 
could  not  find  any  paragraph  of  the  law  for- 
bidding this.  After  fighting  the  authorities  for 
four  years  he  at  last  got  tired  and  left  the 
country.  His  caravan  is  now  in  the  Cracowi 
National  Museum.  Occasionally  the  poor  souls 
have  to  content  themselves  with  living  in  caves 
dug  in  the  ground,  a  form  of  dwelling  which1 
we  shall  therefore  suppose  must  be  considered 
less  insanitary  in  the  eyes  of  the  Prussian 
authorities  than  houses.1 

The  authorities  do  not  seem  to  think  they, 
can  forbid  this,  as  there  is  no  law  against 
caves,  so  they  let  the  matter  pass  because  they 
do  not  wish  to  run  the  risk  of  having  such 
cases  brought  before  the  law-courts. 

However,  to  kill  as  far  as  possible  the  desire 
of  the  Polish  inhabitants  to  parcel  up  the  soil 
and  to  build  houses  on  it,  still  finer  methods 
have  been  invented.  The  moment  the  Pole, 
in  such  a  caravan  as  we  have  mentioned,  |or 
in  an  earthen  cave,  puts  in  a  stove,  the  sanitary 
inspector  arrives  at  once  and  removes  it,  be- 
cause a  stove  in  such  surroundings  is  dangerous 
to  health  I  The  Pole  is  thus  compelled,  for 
the  sake  of  his  health,  to  freeze  in  the  Polish 

1  Take  care! — Perhaps  you  do  not  know  these  con- 
ditions, but  I  have  only  said  what  I  can  prove, 


A  SUPPLEMENT  105 

winter  \  That  he  might  perhaps  put  up  with 
for  himself,  and  perhaps  also  for  his  wife, 
but  it  is  "sometimes  hard  to  see  the  children 
freeze, 

That  he  sometimes  has  difficulty  in  resigning 
'himself  to  this  may  be  seen  from  the  following 
story  :— 

A  peasant  by  the  name  of  Ghrosz,  who  lived 
in  Silesia  in  such  an  earthen  cave  as  has  been 
mentioned,  had  placed  in  it  a  stove.  The  police 
ordered  him  to  do  away  with  it  himself.  As 
he  did  not  obey,  a  police  officer,  accompanied 
by  a  mason,  arrived  in  the  absence  of  the 
proprietor  and  smashed  the  stove.  While  this 
was  being  done  the  man  came  home.  Desperate 
and  beside  himself  with  rage,  he  seized  his 
gun,  fired  on  the  police  officer,  and  then  shot 
himself. 

Do  not  say,  then,  that  the  Prussian  State 
does  not  take  care  of  its  subjects,  and  that 
it  is  not  a  State  that  pays  due  regard  to  law 
and  culture ! 

[When,  on  the  other  hand,  the  State  com- 
plains of  the  lower  state  of  culture  of  the  Poles, 
one  is  tempted  to  ask  What  the  State  is  doing 
to  advance  Polish  culture,  and  if  Polish  culture 
might  not  have  been  more  advanced  if  the 
Poles  had  been  allowed  to  enjoy  political  liberty 
as  citizens,  and  the  fundamental  rights  of 
human  beings.] 


106        PACIFISM  AND  ITS  ADVERSARIES 

But  let  us  return  to  ordinary  conditions  of 
life  among  the  people.  Take,  for  example, 
freedom  of  association.  How  does  this  stand? 

As  we  know,  the  German  Empire  has  now 
(in  1908)  secured  a  new  Law  of  Association, 
granting  a  little  more  freedom  from  the  inter- 
ference of  the  German  elements  of  society,  but 
full  of  clauses  of  exceptions  for  the  conquered 
people.  As  no  one  knows  yet  how  this  law 
will  work,  or  be  interpreted,  we  will  first  give 
a  short  sketch  of  the  conditions  under  the  old 
and  specially  Prussian  Law  of  Association  :— 

"  All  assemblies  at  Which  public  affairs  are 
to  be  discussed  must  be  reported  in  advance 
to  the  police,  even  if  the  gatherings  are  held 
in  private  houses,  and  if  the  discussions  relate 
to  agriculture,  co  -  operation,  questions  of 
health  insurance,  on  even  the  services  in  the 
Free  Churches.  Three  persons  are,  accord- 
ing to  Prussian  law,  enough  to  make  an 
assembly," 

When  two  men  come  driving  along  in  a 
closed  carriage,  and  meet  a  friend,  who  takes 
a  seat  beside  them,  and  they  carry,  on  a  con- 
versation about  the  high  price  of  corn,  "  then," 
as  a  famous  German  advocate  has  said,  "  they 
are  punishable,  according  to  Prussian  law,  as 
the  meeting  was  not  beforehand  reported  to 
the  police." 

Gatherings  in  the  open  air  require  a  special 


A  SUPPLEMENT  107 

permit  from  the  police,  a  permit  which  has 
never  been  granted  for  a  Polish,  Danish,  or. 
French  meeting. 

Societies  which  "  seek  to  influence  public 
affairs  "  must  submit  their  rules  and  lists  of 
members  to  the  police,  and  must  notify  within 
three  days  all  changes  in  the  membership.  In 
1899  about  a  hundred  and  fifty  law  actions, 
involving  fines  to  the  amount  of  twenty 
thousand  marks,  were  brought  against  the 
North  Sleswig  Language  Union  in  respect  of 
deaths  among  members,  during  the  preceding 
ten  years,  which  had  not  been  notified  to  the 
police  within  three  days.  When  a  man  died 
in  a  distant  country  district  the  very  first  thing 
the  family  had  to  think  of  was  to  intimate  the 
fact,  as  quickly  as  possible,  to  all  the  societies 
of  which  the  deceased  had  been  a  member,  so 
that  the  various  committees  might  let  the  police 
know  within  three  days,  preferably  in  a 
registered  letter,  I  think,  so,  as  to  have  for 
future  occasions,  perhaps  ten  years  later,  a 
receipt  in  proof  of  the  intimation.  Each 
member  of  the  committee  of  an  Agricultural 
Association  was  fined  fifteen  marks  because  the 
death  of  a  member  was  intimated  only  on  the 
1st  of  May,  while  he  had  died  on  the  evening 
of  the  28th  of  April.  The  29th  was  a  Sunday, 
and  on  the  Monday  the  Association  held  a 
general  meeting  for  the  election  of  committee 


108        PACIFISM  AND   ITS  ADVERSARIES 

members.  As  a  rule  women  may  never  be 
present  at  political  meetings,  nor  yet  at  sociable 
gatherings  held  after  them. 

The  police  dissolved,  for  instance,  some  time 
ago,  the  Mantlemakers'  Trade  Union  in  Berlin 
because  a  woman  speaker  at  a  meeting  had 
yoiced  a  wish  for  the  reduction  of  the  tariff 
on  thread,  It  had  cost  philanthropic  people 
years  oT  work  and  trouble  to  bring  together 
and  organize  these  worst -paid  of  outcasts  among 
women  workers.  And  then,  with  one  stroke 
of  a  pen,  the  police  director  smashed  and 
annihilated  the  whole  organization. 

Any  meeting  could  be  dissolved  by  the  police 
if  armed  persons  were  found  to  be  present, 
and  in  the  conquered  country,  districts  such 
meetings  have  been  dissolved  because  walking- 
sticks  were  found  in  the  room. 

Meetings  have  been  stopped  for  many,  and 
various  reasons.  One  speaker  began  his  lecture 
with  these  words :  "  My  theme  .  .  ."  Then 
the  police  officer  rose  and  said  shortly :  "  No 
one  may  speak  of  themes  in  this  assembly,  I 
declare  the  meeting  closed  !  "  Somewhere  in 
one  of  the  conquered  districts  a  number  of 
ladies  were  gathered  at  a  tea-party,  when  the 
police  pushed  their  way  in  and  put  an  end  to 
the  gathering ;  certainly  no  speeches  had  been 
made,  but,  according  to  the  ideas  of  the  police, 
it  was  probable  that  public  affairs  might  have 


A  SUPPLEMENT  109 

been  discussed  if  the  party  had  been  allowed 
to  go  on.  Ordinary  non-political  gatherings 
with  lectures  have  been  stopped  "  because  a 
crack  in  the  plaster  ceiling  showed  that  the 
club-house  was  shaky,"  or  because  "  some 
children  were  ill  with  measles  on  a  farm  in 
the  same  parish,"  or  because  "  the  hall  was  lit 
with  paraffin  lamps,  and  it  was  quite  possible 
that  one  of  them  might  explode,"  or  because 
the  door  was  not  marked  "  Exit "  (Ausgangs- 
thur),  or  because  the  police  had  not  indicated 
how  many  persons  the  hall  could  hold.  In 
Saxony  the  police  have  often  forbidden  meet- 
ings of  a  social -democratic  character  "  because 
the  drinking  water  of  the  town  was  not  good/' 
and  in  Silesia  the  police  forbade  a  trade-union 
of  masons  to  hold  meetings  "  because  foot-and- 
mouth  disease  had  broken  out  among  the  cattle 
of  the  district." 

At  a  certain  place  a  Dedication  Service  was 
proposed  to  be  held  in  a  new  Free  Church. 
But  in  the  place  o,f  the  pastor  the  police 
officer  appeared,  in  the  chancel,  in  pointed 
helmet,  and  with  sword  in  hand,  and  forbade 
the  use  of  the  church  because  a  crack  the 
size  of  a  hair  was  visible  in  the  plaster  ceiling, 
and  showed  that  the  building  was  dangerous  ! 
A  legal  process  followed,  during  which  the 
church  was  kept  closed  for  four  years,  then 
the  closing  order  was  reversed  by  the  highest 


110        PACIFISM  AND   ITS  ADVERSARIES 

court.  But  for  those  four  years  the  congre- 
gation had  in  this  way,  been  unable  to  make 
use  of  their  church1,  andj  of  course,  the  right 
to  hold  open-air  meetings  had  been  refused. 

[If  only  for  completeness'  sake,  let  me  add 
that  in  the  conquered  districts  the  licences  of 
hotel -keepers  and  innkeepers  are  held  subject 
to  the  condition  that  they  do  not  permit  their 
houses  to  be  used  for  Nationalist  meetings, 
not  even  for  Nationalist  agricultural  or 
Nationalist  health  insurance  meetings.] 

What  surprises  one  is  that  any  meeting  at 
all  is  ever  successfully  arranged. 

Whatever  the  circumstances,  whatever  the 
occasion,  the  question  in  the  conquered 
districts  is  whether  one's  sympathies  are 
Nationalist  or  pro -German,  and  if  one  is  not 
pro -German  one  has  no  rights.  If  a  farmer, 
owing  to  the  busy  harvest  season,  wishes  to 
get  an  exeat  from  school  fon  his  herd  boy,, 
the  granting  of  this  favour  all  depends  on 
whether  he  shows  a  "  Nationalist  tendency " 
or  not.  In  the  German  Parliament  on 
March  19,  1908,  the  representative  for  North 
Sleswig,  Herr  H.  P.  Hanssen,  handed  the 
Minister  for  Education  a  "  private  "  note  issued 
by  the  school  inspector  to  the  teachers,  in 
which  this  procedure  was  strongly  recom- 
merided.  During  the  parliamentary  discussions 
on  March  16,  1908j  a  member;  of  the  House, 


A  SUPPLEMENT  111 

Herr  Sudekum,  showed  "that  this  principle  is 
also  accepted  as  the  guiding  rule  in  dealing 
with  "  grants  in  support  of  veterans."  He  pro- 
duced a  document  in  which  LandrathDolegavon 
Koszierewski  asked  a  county,  official  to  inform 
him  how  far  some  applicant  fulfilled  the  con- 
ditions prescribed  by  the  law ;  but,  along  with 
this,  the  official  was  asked  to  give  in'  a  separate 
letter,  and  'for  private  information,  his  opinion 
as  to  how  far  an  allowance  granted  could  be 
supposed  to  promote  loyalist  tendencies  in  the 
case  of  the  person  in  question,  01*  if,  on  the 
contrary,  he  was  pro -Danish,  This  was  an 
attempt  at  corruption,  for  which  it  was  im- 
possible for  the  speaker  to  find  parliamentary, 
expression.  He  begged  the  House  to  record 
their  disgust  at  this  wretched  Landrath's  action 
(here  he  was  called  to  order  by,  the  president). 

[I  make  his  words  my  own.  First  we  are 
conquered,  then  we  are  forced  to  fight  for  the 
conqueror,  and  at  last  we  are  denied  in  our 
old  age  our  pension  as  veterans,  which  all 
other  veterans  receive,  on  account  of  our. 
nationality.  As  if  our  sympathies  were  within 
the  power  of  our  will !  ] 

A  community  in  which  the  inhabitants  are 
mainly  Polish  decide  to  build  a  well  at  the 
school,  and  receive  an  offer  from  a  local  work- 
man to  do  the  work  for  four  hundred  marks. 
The  community,  know  that  a  neighbouring 


113        PACIFISM  AND  ITS  ADVERSARIES 

district  has  got  a  Government  grant  towards 
the  construction  of  their  school  well,  and  they 
seek  the  same  help.  This  also  is  granted,  but 
with  this  limitation  :  the  grant  is  made  to  depend 
on  the  work  being  executed  by.  a  certain  German 
firm.  This  firm  want  a  thousand  marks  for 
the  job,  so  that  the  community,  save  a  hundred 
marks  by,  refusing  the  grant., 

In  the  year  1908  the  German  people 
secured  a  new  and  more  liberal  Law  of 
Assembly,  which,  however,  can  easily  and 
zealously  be  used  against  us  by  Prussian  skill 
in  interpretation*  But  for  the  special  benefit 
of  the  conquered  districts,  the  new  law  contains 
in.  Section  12  this  clause,  that  at  all  public 
meetings,  political  or  non -political,  even  at 
ordinary  lectures,  and  at  Free  Church  services, 
only  German  and  no  other  language  may  be 
spoken.  This  decree,  however,  is  not  to  come 
into  force  for  twenty  y;ears  in  all  parishes, 
where  more  than  60  per  cent,  of  the  population 
are  of  non -German  nationality.  But  it  comes 
into  force  at  once  In  many  purely  Polish, 
Danis'h,  and  French  'districts,  which  have  the 
sad  fate  of  'bordering  on  districts  of  German 
nationality,  and  of  forming  one  half  of  a  parish, 
the  other  half  of  which  is  mainly  German 
("geometry,  of  choice"). 

In  such  places  the  mother  tongue  is  silenced 
at  once,  even  in  the  Free  Churches  ;  in  the 


A  SUPPLEMENT  113 


districts  where  it  is  spoken  by  over  60 
cent,  of  the  population  it  .will  be  silenced  in 
twenty  years'  time.  Wherever  our  countrymen 
gather  in  large  numbers  their  mother  tongue 
is  forbidden,  either  now,  at  once,  or  in  twenty 
years'  time.  The  mother  tongue  must  be 
silenced. 

It  is  silenced  in  the  church,  in  the  school,-. 
in  the  law-court,  in  the  clubs,  in  the  theatres, 
in  the  agricultural  associations,  and  in  the 
health  insurance  unions.  I  know  only  one 
place  where  it  will  never  die  —  in  the  home. 
From  the  home  no  persecution  will  ever  drive 
it  out  ;  there  at  least  'it  will  reign  to  all  eternity, 
and  as  long  as  it  lives  there  it  has  always  a 
chance  of  waking  into  life  anew  elsewhere  as 
well. 

And  we  shall  not  forget  that  the  German 
Chancellor  stood  up  in  his  place  in  Parliament 
and  supported  such  a  proposal  as  this  (nay,  a 
far  more  drastic  proposal  ;  for  the  law,  as  it 
exists,  is  a  compromise  between  the  Govern- 
ment proposal  and  the  amendments  secured  by 
the  Liberal  parties),  and  that  he  has  declared 
its  acceptance  to  be  necessary  and  self-evident. 
However  refined  and  polite,  however  amiable 
he  may,  perhaps,  be  as  a  man,  yet  this  policy 
of  his  brands  him  with  a  stigma  which  will' 
accompany  his  name  beyond  death  and  the 

grave.     We  can  accept  no  excuses  to  the  eifect 

8 


114        PACIFISM  AND  ITS  ADVERSARIES 

that  these  matters  relate  only  to  politics,  and 
that  here  the  question  of  morality  does  not 
arise  ;  for  even  in  politics  there  is  a  something 
called  elementary,  personal  honesty  and  up- 
rightness, and  there  are  limits  to  the  contem'pt- 
ible  slave  labour  for  which  a  man  of  honour 
can  be  used.  Is  it  necessary  to  add  that  the 
present  Act  is  far  from1  satisfactory  from  the 
point  of  view  of  the  full-blown  Pan-Germans 
and  Nationalists?  Let  us  remember  that  at 
the  annual  conference  of  the  Hakatists  a  motion 
was  submitted  to  the  effect  that  all  newspapers 
should  be  printed  only  in  German. 

In  many  places  in  the  German  Empire  the 
Poles  hold  now  (to  the  great  indignation  of 
ultra  -  loyalist  Prussians )  public  meetings 
where  no  words  are  spoken,  but  the 
speakers  write  down  their  addresses  in  chalk 
on  a  large  blackboard,  in  Polish.  But  the 
police  will  surely  soon  find  a  legial  formula 
by  which  they  can  forbid  this  too. 

Let  us  add  that  bills  and  notices  in  work- 
shops, factories,  and  mines  may  be  written 
in  German  only,  even  when  the  workmen,  as 
in  Westphalia  and  the  Rhine  province,  are 
mostly  Poles,  who  'do  not  understand  a  word 
of  German,  and  this  practice  has  also  been 
blamed  for  the  recent  mine  disaster  in  Radbod. 

It  only  remains  to  say  that  this  stain  on  the 
honour  of  Prussia  is  but  a  small  matter  in 


A  SUPPLEMENT  115 

comparison  with  the  infJamous  policy  which 
is  known  as  the  L;aw  of  the  Forcible  Expro- 
priation of  Polish  L.and.1  History  has  seen 
nothing  like  this  since  Assyrian  kings  drove 
away  whole  tribes  of  people  from  their  home- 
steads. 

1  It  is  only  a  case  of  latifundia,  and  the  Polish 
Junkers  are  not  better  than  the  Prussian.  Besides,  the 
law  does  not  mention  Polish  land,  but  it  is  directed  gen- 
erally against  all  excessive  property  in  land.  How  the 
administration  carried  out  the  law — yes,  my  friend, 
that  is  quite  another  story. — Yes,  it  certainly  is  another 
story.  The  idea  of  general  application  is  then  quite  illu- 
sory— we  might  say  humorous.  But  the  law  in  itself  is 
not  general  either.  Is  it  not  limited  so  as  to  apply  only 
to  certain  Government  districts,  and  these  just  the  con- 
quered ones  ?  And  is  it  not  officially  endorsed  as  an 
effort  to  advance  Germanism  in  these  districts  ? 

That  forcible  expropriation  is  in  practice  carried  out 
only  in  the  case  of  excessive  estates  is  one  thing — that 
is  natural — but  that  the  law  is  not  limited  to  these  I 
believe  to  be  certain,  but  I  must  make  fresh  inquiries. 
Ludwig  Bernhard,  "  Die  Polenfrage "  (Leipzig,  1910, 
2nd  ed.,  p.  596),  merely  states  that  "  the  only  proper- 
ties entirely  exempted  from  expropriation  were  the  large 
possessions  of  the  Church  and  charitable  institutions  in 
Posen  and  in  West  Prussia"  ;  but  he  does  not  say  a 
word  about  the  law  applying  only  for  latifundia.  See 
later  quotations  by  the  Counts  Mirback  and  Schulenburg 
and  von  Haseler.  And  whatever  the  Polish  Junkers  may 
be  like — even  if  they  were  mere  brute  beasts — still,  they 
might  claim  the  same  constitutional  rights  as  the  Prus- 
sians (who  are  not  any  better).  Even  anarchists  and 
moral  outcasts  enjoy  those  rights. 


116        PACIFISM  AND   ITS  ADVERSARIES 

The  right  of  possession  is  thus  abolished 
in  Prussia,  as  regards  the  Polish  proprietor. 
We  will  assume  for  the  moment  that  the  State 
is  in  a  position  to  annul  the  rights  of  private 
property  (the  matter  is  open  to  discussion),  if 
it  does  so  consistently  and  justly  for  all  its 
citizens.  But  to  do  this  in  the  case  of  a  certain 
limited  section  ! 

Here,  then,  is  a  peasant  proprietor  on  his 
farm,1  which  he  has  inherited  from  his  father 
and  intends  to  'hand  down  to  his  son.  If  he 
is  asked  if  he  will  sell  the  farm,  he  says  no. 
'But  the  Prussian  Government  takes  him  by  the 
scruff  of  the  neck  and  throws  him  out  of  hist 
own  gate,  and  gives  him  a  sum,  which  it  fixes 
to  suit  itself.  Such  a  law  we  shall  never 
recognize.  This  is  not  a  case  of  dura  lex, 
sect  lex.  No,  this  is  not  a  case  of  law  at 
all  (as  there  is  no  equity),  but  only  a  brutal 
exercise  of  power. 

The  Prussian  Landtag  has  passed  this  law, 
the  Prussian  Landtag  which  is  elected  by  a 
small  and  carefully  limited  section  of  reaction- 
ary Prussia's  most  reactionary  elements.  But 
the  Prussian  Landtag  has  no  right  whatsoever 
to  pass  such  a  law,  not  a  shadow  of  a  right. 
Might  is  put  in  the  place  of  right,  and  funda- 
mental, natural,  self-evident,  and  God -given 

1  Estate.    Small  properties  cannot  be  expropriated,—" 
Does  this  make  matters  any  better? 


A  SUPPLEMENT  117 

justice  is  mocked  and  trampled  upon.  And 
whoever  associates  himself  with  such  action  is 
a  criminal ;  he  sins  against  a  law  which  is  higher 
than  all  Prussian  laws,  which  is  above  all 
imperial  and  royal  authority.  And  the  trans- 
gressor of  this  law  shall,  indeed,  sooner  or 
later,  be  duly  punished. 

Richard  Witting  mentions  in  one  of  his 
pamphlets  that  it  is  a  matter  of  indifference 
on  which  side  the  right  and  the  wrong  lie  in 
the  struggle  between  Germans  and  Poles. 
Another  of  the  Hakatist  leaders,  Councillor 
Wagner,  has  declared  in  public  that  it  is  a 
mere  detail  (nebensache}  whether  the  Poles  get 
their  rights  or  not.  And  at  the  annual  meeting 
of  the  Hakatists  he  has  said :  "  Where  Polish 
land  is  in  the  way,  it  must  be  cleared  out  of 
the  way  ;  what  becomes  of  the  Poles  does  not 
concern  us." 

However,  so  far  moral  courage  has  been 
wanting  to  carry  this  law  into  force.1  Is  it 

1  The  author  of  this  pamphlet  did  not  live  to  see 
this  law  enforced.  The  circumstances  recently  attend- 
ing the  first  expropriations  are  highly  dramatic  and 
interesting.  Up  to  the  end  of  1912  steps  had  been  taken 
for  the  expropriation  of  four  estates.  One  belonged 
to  a  widow  whose  husband,  a  German  (sanitatsrath ) 
Director  of  Hygiene,  had  fought  in  the  campaign 
1870-71.  The  commission  of  expropriation  fixed  as 
the  sale  price  of  this  estate  the  same  sum  which  her 
husband  at  some  time  or  other  had  paid  for  it,  and 


118        PACIFISM  AND  ITS  ADVERSARIES 

possible  to  go  further?  Could  one  conceive 
any  more  drastic  measures?  Yes,  indeed. 
Listen  !  A  Prussian  Government  assessor  has 
proposed  that  the  Poles  should  simply  be 
deprived  of  the  right  to  possess  any  land 
whatsoever  (Neue  Bahnen  der  Polenpolitik, 
Berlin,  1903).  And  this  proposal  has  been 

made  no  allowance  for  the  greatly  increased  value  of  the 
property.  The  other  case  was  that  of  the  estate  of  Kold- 
rump,  which  the  proprietor,  Herr  Trzycinski,  had  pur- 
chased recently  from  a  Herr  von  Senptleben  for  the  sum  of 
950,000  marks.  (Herr  von  Senptleben  had  purchased  the 
estate  three  years  before  for  600,000  marks  ;  he  had  built 
a  i  mansion-house  at  a  cost  of  80,000  marks  ;  he  had 
drained  the  ground,  bought  stock  and  machines,  etc. — in 
short,  he  had  improved  the  neglected  property  and  sold  it, 
as  we  have  said,  for  950,000  marks  to  Herr  Trzycinski.) 
One  fine  day  the  proprietor  receives  a  letter  from  the 
Commission  of  Expropriation  inviting  him  to  a  discus- 
sion relating  to  the  expropriation  of  his  property.  He 
takes  no  notice  of  this  letter.  He  receives  intimation 
that  the  Commission  will  arrive  on  a  certain  day  to  look 
over  the  estate.  When  they  arrive  the  estate  looks 
deserted,  all  doors  are  shut,  so  that  the  Commission  have 
to  make  forcible  entry.  Only  the  parish  priest  turns  up 
to  protest  against  this  violation  and  breach  of  the  peace. 
The  Commission  inspect  everything.  Reporters  who  are 
present  take  photographs  of  them  in  the  field,  but  police 
officers  confiscate  the  films.  When,  in  spite  of  this,  a 
film  which  has  escaped  their  vigilance  is  exhibited  later 
on  in  a  photographer's  window  in  Posen,  this  photog- 
rapher is  fined  30  marks.  The  Commission  now  write 
to  the  owner  that  his  property  has  been  valued  at  830,000 
marks,  120,000  marks  less  than  he  has  paid  for  it.  He 


A  SUPPLEMENT  119 

heartily  adopted  by  the  German  Board  of  Agri- 
culture. .We  shall  see. 

The  end  has  been  reached.  This,  then,  is 
Prussian  rule,  such  is  the  Prussian  Church  and 
the  Prussian  school,  such  are  its  teachers  and 
preachers,  such  are  the  Prussian  law-courts  and 
their  officials  in  the  conquered  territories.  This 
is  Germanizing  !  i 

Let  us  recapitulate  :— 

In  the  conquered  territories  the  Prussian 
clergy  and  the  Prussian  schoolmasters  serve 
the  Emperor  and  all  that  is  German  before 
they,  serve  God.1  Besides  being  educators  of 

does  not  reply.  A  little  later  he  again  gets  a  letter  from 
the  Expropriation  Commission  saying  that  its  president 
cannot  accept  the  first  valuation  given,  but  finds  it  too 
high.  According  to  his  opinion  Koldrump  is  worth 
674,320  marks.  The  mansion-house,  for  example,  would 
only  be  a  burden  to  the  Commission,  and  must  therefore 
be  deducted  in  the  valuation.  Besides,  he  draws  the 
proprietor's  attention  to  the  fact  that  he  must  defray  the 
cost  of  removal  himself.  A  new  valuation  is,  accord- 
ingly, fixed  for  December  13,  1912. 

From  the  Press  we  notice  that  expropriated  persons 
decline  to  accept  the  sums  offered  (which  the  Government 
then  deposit  in  a  bank  in  their  names),  also  that  they  will 
not  of  their  own  will  leave  their  properties.  From  the 
German  side  we  hear  that  the  Government,  if  necessary, 
will  put  them  out  by  force,  and  accuse  them  of  a  breach 
of  the  peace.  Sic  I — NOTE  BY  THE  EDITOR. 

1  Untrue  I — Not  consciously,  perhaps.  It  may  be  un- 
true as  a  general  indictment.  Most  of  them  believe  them- 
selves able  to  combine  both — or  perhaps  even  serve  God 


120        PACIFISM  AND  ITS  ADVERSARIES 

their  children,  and  taking  care  of  their  souls, 
each  of  them  is  a  Government  tool,  and  as 
such  he  often  hurts,  ill-treats,  and  offends  those 
souls  which  he  ought  to  love,  foster,  and  help 
forward.  The  Prussian  official  wrongs  us  in 
cold  blood,1  he  exiles  and  worries  innocent 
people  for  the  "  crimes "  of  others,  and  he 
admits  this  openly.  He  sometimes  breaks  the 
laws  of  his  own  country  to  encompass  our 
undoing,  and  cuts  down  the  small  measure  of 
liberty  which  the  laws  of  the  conqueror  have 
left  to  us.  Occasionally  he  buys  false  witnesses, 
and  exiles  us  on  the  strength  of  their  perjuries. 
The  Prussian  law-courts  often  shut  their  eyes 
to  this  kind  of  thing. 

Prussian  law-giving  may,  from  our  point 
of  view,  be  described  thus :  Towards  the 
conquered  nations  the  principles  of  equality 
before  the  law  and  of  the  inviolability  of  the 
right  of  possession  are  dead  letters. 

In  other  words,  the  guiding  principle  is  this  : 
It  is  permissible  to  Germanize  foreign  nations, 
whatever  the  means  may  be  ;  as  with  the  Jesuits, 
the  end  justifies  the  means.  To  Germanize  is 

by  serving  the  Germanizing  process.  But  this  belief  is 
mistaken.  A  German  or  German-minded  man  has  no 
business  to  be  there  at  all,  taking  up  the  place  of  one  who 
is  Danish  and  Danish-minded  (Polish  and  Polish-minded, 
French  and  French-minded). 

1  What  do  you  mean  by  "  us  "  ?    Is  the  author  by  any 
chance  a  Sleswig  man,  or  even  a  Pole  1 


A   SUPPLEMENT  121 

the  supreme  end.  All  laws,  human  and  Divine, 
all  the  rights  of  reason  must  give  way  to  this. 
This  is  not  just  a  wild  statement.  It  is  what 
was  admitted  in  a  characteristic  manner  by 
the  German  Chancellor,  the  Optionist's  son, 
Fiirst  von  Billow,  during  the  debate  on  the 
Expropriation  Bill  in  the  Prussian  Landtag. 
For  this,  too,  he  was  prepared  to  take  full 
responsibility  before  the  tribunal  of  history. 
It  was  a  law  of  necessity,  a  law  necessary 
to  secure  the  progress  of  Germanism  in  the 
Polish  provinces.  The  whole  question  was 
whether  those  districts  should  be  Polish  or 
German. 

And  it  does  not  enter  his  head  that  there 
is  only  one  decent  answer  to  this  question — 
Polish.  Polish  they  must  remain,  as  they  have 
always  been.1 

This  is  the  will  of  the  Lord,  for,  this  is 
the  country,  which  He  has  given  to  the  Polish 
people. 

"  Necessiary  to  secure  the  progress  of  Ger- 
manism !  "  But  who  says  that  Germanism  must 

1  TJie  author  forgets  the  advance  of  tJie  Poles. — The 
advance  of  the  Poles  !  In  the  first  place,  all  the  country 
to  the  east  of  the  Elbe  is  old  Slavonic  territory,  which  has 
been  Germanized,  partly  with  fire  and  sword  (the  German 
order  of  knighthood  !).  Secondly,  it  must  be  open  to 
every  nation  to  make  peaceful  conquests  (with  fair  play 
and  without  deeds  of  violence).  The  author  forgets,  we 
think,  the  advance  of  Germanism  in  the  north  of  Sleswig. 


122        PACIFISM  AND  ITS  ADVERSARIES 

make  progress  in  those  conquered  lands?  If 
that  be  the  case,  it  is  a  pity  that  ever  sindje 
the  division  of  Poland  .Germanism  has  made 
no  progress  in  thosie  conquered  provinces  ;and 
n,ever  will  do  so. 

All  the  progress,  as  much  progress  as  you 
like,  that  Germanism  can  gain  by  honest  means 
in  equal  fight,  in  a  peaceable  manner,  we  shall 
not  grudge.  But  when  the  advance  of  Ger- 
manism is  to  be  procured  by  means  of  violence, 
trickery,  and  confiscation  (to  use  the  foreign 
word,  through  "expropriation"),  then  this 
so-called  advance  is  not  only  a  crime,  but  a 
failure. 

And  the  most  audacious  part  of  the  scheme 
is  this,  that  Prussia,  with  a  y.irtuous  and 
scandalized  air,  represents  it  .as  a  moral  duty 
that  we  should  become  Germans,  pretending 
to  consider  it  immoral  and  reprehensible  that 
we  cling  to  our  nationality.1 

[See,  for  instance,  the  speeches  by  the 
Minister  of  the  Interior,  yon  der  Recke,  and 
by  Dr.  Fiiedberg  in  the  Prussian  Landtag, 
January  25,  1899.  The  former  Minister  of 
the  Interior,  Hamttierstein,  has  expressed  this 
claim  pointedly :  "  We  demand  of  the  Poles 
that  they  shall  have  a  German  mind." 2  And 
Kurz  von  Strauz  has  in  a  supplement  to  the 
Detitsches  Tageszeitung,  aimed  at  the  "  new 

1  Good !  a  Revolting  ! 


A  SUPPLEMENT  123 

Danish  politics,"  formulated  his  opinions 
thus  :— - 

:<  When  the  Government  no  longer  has  the 
weapons  of  exile  at  hand,  the  whole  power 
of  the  State  must  be  directed  towards  the  ex- 
tirpation of  a  Danish  state  of  mind  which  is 
'hostile  to  the  State,  which  state  of  mind  is 
nourished  by  the  use  of  the  Danish  language." 

fib  think  that  the  task  of  the  State  is  to 
extirpate  the  mind  !  ] 

But,  I  confidently  ask  the  whole  civilized 
world,  and  every  honest  man  in  it  who  has 
regard  for  the  truth,  wherein  lies  our  moral 
duty  to  become  part  of  Germany?  *  Are  we 
given  any  other  reason  for  this  except  "  politi- 
cal necessity "  ?  And  can  any  one  wonder, 

1  Too  ingenuous  !  As  the  outpost  of  our  fortifications  ! 
In  return  we  ought  with  redoubled  generosity  to  prepare 
a  cosy  nest  for  the  conquered  people. — The  ingenuousness 
seems  to  be  on  the  other  side.  Germany,  then,  has  a  moral 
claim  to  outpost  fortifications  on  all  sides  within  her 
neighbours'  territories.  But  has  France,  then,  not  an 
equal  right  ?  (The  kingdom  of  Westphalia,  for  example.) 
And  certainly  little  Denmark  must  in  a  far  greater 
measure  feel  the  need  of  such  a  glacis  in  the  direction  of 
its  mighty  neighbour  than  Germany  can  towards  the 
quantite  negligeable  called  Denmark.  Besides,  there 
are  fifty  kilometres  between  the  Kiel  Canal  and  the 
Danish  language  border  and  120  kilometres  between  it 
and  the  Danish  State  border.  This  is  a  broad  glacis ! 
Other  Germans  make  out  that  the  whole  of  Denmark  is 
required  as  a  maritime  glacis. 


124        PACIFISM  AND   ITS  ADVERSARIES 

after  reading  the  preceding  description  of  the 
blessings  of  Prussian  Government,  that  the 
oppressed  nations  are  sighing  and  longing  for 
the  day  when  these  blessings  may  cease?  If 
it  was  morally  right  for  Prussia,  by  force  of 
arms,  to  compel  us  against  our,  will  to  come; 
under  its  rule,  would  ita  then,  be  morally  wrong 
if  we,  by  force  of  arms,  were  to  free  ourselves 
from  it?1 

That  such  a  thought  is  absurd  and  that  no 
one  thinks  of  realizing  it  is  beside  the  point. 
I  only  ask  whether  Prussia's  relation  to  any 
of  the  conquered  peoples  can  be  described 
otherwise  than  by  the  words  "  Might  in  place 
of  Right  "  ?  How  can  there  be,  then,  any  moral 
grounds  of  indignation  at  our  wishes  for  sepa- 
ration? If  the  right  of  the  stronger  holds, 
then  it  must  hold  for  us  too  if  the  day  should 
ever  dawn  when  we  become  the  stronger? 

And  what  are  all  these  efforts  at  German- 
izing but  a  premium  on  immorality,  and  hypoc- 
risy? When  the  Landrath  makes  the  pensions 
of  veterans,  hotel  licences,  exemption  from 
exile,  for  servants,  admission  to  communal 
works,  or  whatever  other  material  advantages 
may  be  in  question,  When  he  makes  all  these 

1  A  very  bold  assumption! — Bold,  perhaps,  but  per- 
fectly logical.  But  why  "  bold,"  indeed  ?  It  is  either 
true  or  untrue  !  The  word  "  bold "  is  quite  irrelevant. 
If  it  is  true  it  cannot  be  too  bold. 


A   SUPPLEMENT  125 

favours  dependent  on  clear  evidence  of  the 
possession  of  a  "  German  mind,"  does  he  think 
that  the  person  thus  favoured,  by  changing 
his  state  of  mind,  rises  to  a  higher  level  of 
morality?  Our  view  is  that  he  is  guilty  of 
an  immoral  act,  which  cannot  b;e  condemned 
too  severely,  as  he  is  selling  his  national 
sympathies  and  his  duty  to  his  country  for 
money  or  other  gain — an  infamy  which  is 
only  surpassed  by  that  of  the  man  who 
buys  him. 

Certainly  it  is  only  a  generation  of  hypo- 
crites, of  miserable  renegades,  of  men  striving 
for  food  without  sense  or  spirit,  that  Prussia 
can  buy  at  this  price.  And  "  what  shall  it 
profit  a  man  if  he  ,gain  the  whole  world  and 
lose  his  own  soul?"  > 

But  we  will  not  be  Germanized,  and  it  shall 
never  happen.  For  the  thing  is  impossible 
in  itself,  and  it  is  specially  impossible  if  it 
depends  upon  these  principles.  In  these  prin- 
ciples of  force  and  violence  lie  our  guarantee 
that  it  shall  never  come  to  pass.  As  it  was 
once  put  by  a  simple  peasant :  "  I  think  that 
if  it  had  been  the  Lord's  intention  th;at  we 
should  become  Germans,  He  would  have  given 
them  greater  intelligence."  Yes,  indeed,  the 
present  method  is  not  intelligent !  It  does  not 
lead  to  the  aim  in  view,  but  away  from  it. 
For  .Germanizing  is  (like  all  forcible  denation- 


126        PACIFISM  AND  ITS  ADVERSARIES 

alization),  for  Magyars,  for  Poles,  for  Russians, 
and  for  Danes,  but  one  thing  and  one  thing 
only — a  crime. 

We  are  made  by  God  in  the  same  image 
as  the  German,  and  in  His  sight  we  are  just 
as  valuable  as  the  German.  The  latter  has 
absolutely  no  virtue  in  himself  that  we  do  not 
possess.  Our  civilization  is  equal  to  his.  In 
the  case  of  some  of  us  it  may  be  higher,  in 
the  case  of  others  perhaps  lower ;  but  then, 
this  is  his  fault,  as  it  is  only  the  natural  result 
of  German  tyranny.  Our  culture  is  not  to  be 
judged  by  what  it  is,  but  by  what  it  might 
have  been  if  we  had  been  allowed  to  live  a 
free  and  independent  life,  or  if  our  oppressors 
had  fulfilled  their  duty  to  take  care  of  our 
education,  our  development,  and  our  language 
with  th'e  same  zeal  with  which  they  care  fop 
their  own.  If  we  are  found  wanting  in  culture 
we  put  it  quietly  down  to  the  account  of  our 
oppressors. 

We  are  not  German,  and  we  will  not  ever 
become  German. 

Finally,  a  question  and  a  comparison. 

The  Anglo-Saxon  can  Anglicize  other  nations 
without  any  complaint  being  heard  of  wrongs 
or  oppression.  America  can  absorb  all  who 
pour  into  her  (including  Germans),  and  Angli- 
cize them  under  full  liberty  and  absolute 
equality  of  rights.  Nothing  is  heard  there  of 


A  SUPPLEMENT  127 

Polish,  German,  or  other  colonies  for  any 
length  of  time. 

Where  the  Englishman  goes  an  English  coun- 
try grows  forth  of  itself.  In  America,  in  Africa, 
in  Australia,  both  the  natives  and  the  immi- 
grant settlers  accommodate  themselves  easily. 
to  the  English  language,  English  thought,  and 
English  rule. 

The  German  cannot  bring  this  about  either 
at  home  or  abroad.  Why? 

We  know  why. 

The  Englishman  has  never  wronged  the  other 
nations,  he  has  never  for  a  moment  thought 
of  the  possibility  of  exceptional  laws,  and  if 
any  complaint  over  national  wrong  has  been 
heard,  then  he  has  listened  to  it  (Malta,  South 
Africa,  etc.)  It  is  in  his  blood  that  first  of 
all  there  must  be  "  fair  play." 

The  German  does  not  make  use  of  fair  play. 
And  that  is  why  he  is  losing.  That  is  why 
he  cannot  hold  his  own  in  his  own  country 
against  the  Poles,  and  why  he  cannot  conquer 
even  so  small  and  so  unfortunately  placed  a 
nation  as  the  Danes. 

For,  in  the  long  run,  no  one  has  ever  yet 
been  known  to  win  by  foul  play.  It  is  a  law 
of  Nature :  the  one  who  wrongs  and  tramples 
upon  others  must  lose. 

Many  evil  deeds  are  recorded  in  these  pages, 
many  serious  accusations  brought  forward. 


128        PACIFISM  AND   ITS  ADVERSARIES 

But  no  word  has  been  written  that  is  not  true, 
and  every  accusation  may  easily  be  verified. 
Every  one  can  examine  these  for  himself  if 
'he  will  take  the  trouble  to  inquire  in  the  right 
place.  Every  case  cited  refers  to  some  par- 
ticular persons  and  events. 

What  do  we  expect  to  gain  by  this  little 
book?  At  first,  I  know,  only  meagre  results. 
For,  to  convert  our  tormentors,  and  to  get  those 
who  rule  over  us  to  adopt  different  points  of 
view  would,  indeed,  be  too  much  to  expect. 

But  there  are  other  people  in  Germany  than 
Prussians,  and  other  Prussians  than  these  hard- 
hearted and  unjust  men  of  whom  we  have 
spoken.  There  exists  another  Germany  than 
the  one  we  have  been  painting  here  in  such 
dark  colours,  and  which  we  hate  and  despise. 
There  is  another  Germany  which  we  love  and 
admire. 

But  what  has  become  of  it?  Will  it  share 
in  the  shame?  Alas  !  this  is  one  of  the  most 
tragic  and  depressing  factors  in  the  history 
of  the  world,  that  this  better  Germany  has 
never  been  able  to  hold  its  own  beside  the 
other.  This  is  a  very  depressing  fact,  since 
it  is  to  this  other  Germany  that  we  wish  to 
speak,  and  through  them  to  the  whole  of 
Europe,  or  rather  to  the  whole  civilized  world. 

We  do  this  in  order  that  all  may  work 
with  redoubled  zeal  to  bring  nearer  that  great 


A  SUPPLEMENT  129 

aim  and  that  distant  time  when  wars  and 
national  controversies  shall  cease  in  old  Europe, 
as  they  have  already  ceased  in  America,  because 
there  they  play  fair. 


In  conclusion  we  shall  add  some  warning 
words  written  by  prominent  and  warm-hearted 
Germans  to;  their  countrymen : — 

"  To  rob  any  one  of  his  mother  tongue  by 
violence  is  an  unprecedented  act  of  cruelty, 
but  I  would  add  that  the  cruelty  and  the  harsh- 
ness pass  the  bounds  both  of  ethics  and  of 
morals  when  it  is  decided  to  rob  parents,  on 
account  of  their  political  sympathies,  of  their, 
most  sacred  right — the  right  to  educate  their 
children."  * 

"  The  last  evictions  in  Sleswig  cry  to 
heaven."  2 

"  When  one  comes  in  German  history  to  the 
description  of  the  Sleswig-Holstein  war,  and 
would  fain  depict  the  misdeeds  committed  by 
the  Danes  against  their  betrayed  sister  tribe, 
the  voice  fails,  and  the  word  dies  on  the  tongue, 
for  the  painful  truth  reveals  itself,  and  it  is 
this :  What  the  Danes  did  then,  and  what 
roused  the  moral  indignation  of  the  German 

1  Dr.  Lenzmann  in  the  German  Reichstag,  1899. 
a  Professor  Hans  Delbriick  in  Preussische  Jahrbucher. 

9 


130        PACIFISM  AND  ITS  ADVERSARIES 

people,  was  mere  child's  play  in  comparison 
with  the  violence  with  which  we  now  rtiljei 
this  district."  ' 

"  It  is  really  strange  to  see  what  an 
enthusiastic  interest  our  countrymen  have  taken 
in  the  Boers'  fight  for  liberty,  and  how  they 
here  at  home  can  commit  crying  wrongs  to^ 
wards  their  own  fellow-citizens  without  caring 
in  the  least."3 

"  Every  subject  of  the  State  has  the  primary 
right  to  settle  down  wherever  he  likes  if  he 
is  able  to  make  for,  himself  ,a  living  and  to 
procure  a  house."  3 

"  According  to  -existing  laws  of  administra- 
tion the  communal  president  and  the  district 
commissary  have  power  to  grant  building! 
permits  ;  instead  of  this  that  power  has,  as 
a  matter  o,f  fact,  been  transferred  to  the  Land- 
rath.  The  communal  president  and  the  district 
commissary  are  required  to  lay  all  building 
applications  before  the  Landrath  ;  he  sends 
them  to,  the  State  president,  and  any  one  who 
wishes  to  build,  and  who  has  made  the  neces- 
sary, application  suddenly  receives,  instead  of 
a  decision,  a,  reply  from  the  State  president, 
which  he  has  not  asked  for!  at  all,  and  which 

1  Professor  Hans  Delbriick  in  Preussische  Jahrlucher. 
*  Professor    Dr.    W.   Schiiking,   "  Das    Nationalitaten 
problem,"  p.  47,  Dresden,  1908. 
3  German  Law,  November  1, 1867,  §  1. 


A  SUPPLEMENT  131 

is  in  the  following  terms  :  '  The  plan  of  the 
building  whjch  you  propose  to  build  on  such' 
and  such  #.  pieces  of  ground  I  hereby  refuse 
to  pass,  as  it  is  contrary  to  the  law  in  further- 
ance of  .German  settlements  in  West  Prussia 
and  in  Posen.'  That  is  the  formula.  The 
forms  are  printed ;  I  have  them  by  the 
hundred.  Now  it  is  necessary  to  apply  again 
to,  the  building  authorities,  only  to  receive  in 
due  course  the  reply  that  the  application  has 
been  refused,  because  a  permission  to  settle 
in  the  place  must  be  obtained  at  the  same 
time,  and  this  is  refused  by  the  president  of 
the  Government."  * 

"  Gentlemen,  what  a  cry  of  indignation  would 
be  heard  among  us  if  Russia  were  to  treat 
the  Baltic  Germans  to  expropriation  proposals  ! 
Do,  not  forget  the  proverb,  '  Do  unto  others 
as  you  would  that  others  should  do  unto  you.' 
On  this  ground  I  appeal  to  your<  calm  con- 
sideration and  to  your  sense  of  justice.  lit 
my  opinion,  frankly  and  honestly — I  regret  to 
have  to  say  so, — the  man  who  conceived  the 
idea  o,f  expropriation  h.as  rendered  but  poor 
service  to  the  Prussian  Croyernment."  2 

"  Every  man  who  oxwns  land  will  feel  what 

1  The  debates  in  the  German  Reichstag,  52nd  meeting, 
March  28,  1906,  p.  3836.     The  member  Erzberger. 

2  Count  von   Mirbach  in    the   Prussian    Herrnhause, 
5th  meeting,  February  26,  1908. 


132        PACIFISM  AND  ITS  ADVERSARIES 

it  means  when  that  which  he  possesses  to-day, 
that  upon  which  he  has  spent  the  work  of  a 
lifetime,  feeling  that  parents  and  grandparents 
had  done  the  same  before  him1 — when  that 
may  to-morrow  be  taken  from  him. 

"It  has  been  said  that  just  as  thousands  may 
be  killed  in  war,  so  the  State  has  a  right, 
in  the  interests  of  its  own  safety,  to  expro- 
priate. Gentlemen,  these  are  totally  different 
things.  iWar  is  a  fully  justifiable  way  of 
settling  conflicting  interests  :  '  Defence  on  the 
one  ;side,  offence  on  the  other.'  But  in  expro- 
priation one  of  the  sides  is  defenceless."  l 

"  When  then,  which  God  forbid  !  the  con- 
clusion will  be  drawn  from  this  precedent,2 
when,  perhaps,  our  successor  will  become 
expropriated  and  driven  from  the  land  of  his 
fathers — then  as  he  leaves  he  will  point  his 
finger  at  his  father's  tomb  and  say,  '  He  took 
the  first  fateful  step  on  the  unhappy  road  which 
has  led  to  my  destruction,  and  is  responsible 
for  it. 3  Gentlemen,  I  wish  to  safeguard  my 
tomb  against  this  I  "  4 

".Gentlemen,    do    not    attack    the    mother 

1  General  Field-Marshal  Count  von    Haesler.     Same 
place  as  above. 

*  A  social-democratic    expropriation    of    the  wealthy 
classes. 

3  By  voting  for  the  expropriation  law. 

*  Count  von  Schulenburg.    Same  place  as  above. 


A  SUPPLEMENT  133 

tongue.  In  doing  so  you  touch  the  most 
sensitive  nerve  of  all.  The  heart  of  the  people 
clings  to  its  language  :  the  poetries  of  all  nations 
make  us  recognize  this  ;  the  poets  have  given 
their  best,  their  deepest  and  highest,  when  they, 
praised  the  mother  tongue.  The  man  who 
interferes  here  makes  a  great  mistake.  The 
result  will  be,  not  reconciliation  but  indigna- 
nation."  l 

"  On  every  occasion  on  which  I  have  spoken 
in  public  on  the  Polish  language  problem  I 
have  advocated,  not  only  that  all  religious 
instruction  in  all  divisions  of  the  school 
should  be  given  in  Polish,  but  also  that 
the  public  schools  should  give  instruction  in 
the  Polish  language ;  and  for  two  reasons : 
in  the  iirst  place,  so  that  the  children  after 
having  learned  the  Polish  language  may  also 
receive  religious  instruction  in  Polish ;  and, 
secondly,  because  I  have  the  conviction  that 
every  human  being  has  an  inborn  right  to 
his  mother  tongue,  and  that  when  the  Govern- 
ment forces  the  children  to  go  to  Government 
schools  it  must  do  justice  to  these  inborn 
rights  in  the  school  curriculum.  I  am  of 
the  opinion  that  for  the  welfare  of  the  people 
as  well  as  for  the  sake  of  the  Government,  it  is 
greatly  to  be  recommended  that  those  officials 

1  Dr.    Pachnicke    in    the    German    Reichstag,    70th 
gathering,  December  10th. 


134        PACIFISM  AND  ITS  ADVERSARIES 

[who  are  in  immediate  touch  with  the  people, 
as  well  as  the  judges,  should  have  some 
knowledge  of  the  language  of  the  people  so 
that  they,  do  not  need  interpreters  to  make 
themselves  understood  "  (the  President  of  the 
German  Reichstag,  Count  Ballestrem,  in  a 
declaration  read  lat  a  meeting  of  the  ielectors 
of  the  Central  party  in  Beuthen  at  the  end 
of  June  1908).  As  a  commentary  on  this 
Dr.  Georg  M.  Kietz  writes  in  his  book  "  Ceterum 
Censeo  "  the  following  lines,  which  we  give 
to  show  how  completely  a  simple  question  of 
this  kind  may  be  abused  and  perverted : — 

"  Instead  of  a  language  making  for  unity  in 
the  State  to  please  my  lords  the  Poles, 
Babylonian  confusion  of  languages  is  advo- 
cated. Sancta  simplicttas.  The  Government 
know  now  what  to  consider  in  connection 
with  school  legislation  in  the  future.  First 
it  must  introduce  Hebrew  into  all  schools 
wherever  the  Jews  all  over  the  Empire  demand 
this  so  that  their  inborn  right  to  their  mother 
tongue  may  not  be  overlooked.1  Further, 
Danish,  Lithuanian,  Wendish,  French,  Dutch, 
Masurian,  Kassubish,  Mahrish,  etc.,  must  be 
taught.  ...  (To  what  strange  views  and  con- 

1  As  if  Hebrew  was  the  mother  tongue  of  the  German 
Jews  I  Why,  however,  should  the  Jews  be  forbidden  in 
their  own  schools  to  teach  their  children  Hebrew  if  they 
wish  it,  which  most  Jews  do  not  at  all  ? 


A   SUPPLEMENT  135 

cessions  even  wise  men  like  the  President  of 
the  German  Reichstag  may  be  led  for  the  sake 
of  his  threatened  mandate!" 

"  Above  all,  be  hard  !  Sense  cannot  be  got 
into  Czeckish  heads,  but  to  blows  they  are 
sensitive.  Be  hard  !  "  * 

"  The  task  of  conquered  nations  !  To  pay, 
taxes,  to  give  military  service,  and  to  hold 
their  tongues."  2 

-"  In  the  Cape  Parliament  the  Dutch  language 
is  on  an  equal  footing  with  English.  Likewise 
also  in  the  Transvaal  and  in  the  Orange  Free 
State,  where  the  recently  conquered  Boers  now 
form  the  Government. 

"  On  the  island  of  Jersey  belonging  to  England 
the  French  language  was,  up  till  February  8, 
1911,  the  only  language  in  the  Parliament  Hall. 
Since  then  the  use  of  the  English  language  has 
also  been  permitted." 

1  Professor  Theodor  Mommsen  :  "  To  Germans  in 
Austria,"  Neue  Freie  Presse,  October  31,  1897. 

3  Dr.  Tlieol.  Letzius  at  a  Hakaiist  gathering  in 
Greifswalde  in  August,  1900  (from  Prneglad  Wzeck- 
polska,  August  9,  1900). 


136        PACIFISM  AND   ITS  ADVERSARIES 

These  are  the  words  of  the  deceased  author.1 
I  shall  let  them  speak  for  themselves  without 
attaching  any,  commentary  and  without  criti- 
cizing him  for  possible  inaccuracies  in  detail. 
The  chief  impression  is  clear  enough,  and 
as  a  first-hand  testimony  of  the  feelings  and 
thoughts  of  oppressed  nations  it  is  in  my 
eyes  a  valuable  document,  an  argumentum  ad 
hominem.  Its  object  may  perhaps  be  regarded 
less  as  argumentation  than  as  agitation.  But  it 
serves  my  purpose,  which  is  to  try  by  its  aid 
to  convince  pacifists  and  those  friendly  to  the 
cause  of  peace,  as  well  as  neutrals,  of  the 
importance  of  the  realization  and  establishment 
of  the  "  rights  of  peace  "  and  of  a  conscious 
and  energetic  effort  to  convince  the  world  of 
this ;  also  of  the  fact  that  the  "  rights  of 
peace  "  are  an  ethical  irrevocable  claim,  a  self- 
evident  and  universal  right  of  humanity.  How 
could  peace  exist  in  a  national  society  shaken 
by  such  violent  passions  and  by  such  explosive 
feelings  ? 

In  order  that  one  nation  only  may  not  be 
placed  in  the  pillory  and  to  prevent  any  one 
from  saying  that  this  sort  of  thing  can  only 
happen  in  this  one  place  in  the  world,  and  does 

1  When  he  gave  me  the  manuscript  he  expressly  stipu- 
lated that  his  name  should  not  appear — presumably  out 
of  consideration  for  relatives  still  residing  in  his  native 
land. 


A  SUPPLEMENT  137 

not  play  a  part  as  a  universal  factor,  I  shall 
add  a  short  sketch  from  another  source—a 
sketch  in  which  the  cause  is  pleaded  of,  among 
others,  the  ill-treated  and  oppressed  Germans 
against  their  rulers.  It  appeared  as  a  news- 
paper article  by,  Bjornstjerne  Bjornson  in 
Politiken  of  January,  28,  1910. 

"(THE   MAGYAR   OPPRESSION 
BY  BJORNSTJERNE  BJORNSON. 

"  Of  this  I  have  written  in  foreign  magazines 
and  newspapers. 

"  The  present  article  which  I  am  contributing 
to  the  Neue  Freie  Presse  I  wish  also  to  publish 
in  Scandinavia  on  account  of  the  information 
which  it  gives. 

"  To  THE  EDITOR.    SIR,— 

"  It  is  with  surprise  that  I  have  read  the 
threats  of  the  myrmidons  of  the  great  Magyar 
race  against  the  Neue  Freie  Presse  because  this 
paper  had  dared  to  publish  my  letters.  It  had 
long  been  the  case  that  nio  other  account  of 
what  takes  place  in  Hungary  may  be  heard 
in  Europe  except  that  supplied  by  the  Pan- 
Magyars  themselves.  This  tyranny  has  now 
been  broken  ;  so  now  their  aim  is  to  prevent 
any,  other  views  from  the  outside  world  from 


138        PACIFISM  AND  ITS  ADVERSARIES 

penetrating  into  Hungary.  A  paper  of  world- 
wide circulation  like  the  Neue  Freie  Presse, 
which  also  has  numerous  readers  in  Hungary, 
must  either  hold  its  tongue  about  everything 
which  does  not  please  the  Magyars,  or  death 
and  the  devil  are  invoked  from  Czernova. 

"  The  leaders  of  the  Pan-Magyar  clique 
which  governs  Hungary  have  clearly  defined 
their  aim;  in  public  lectures :  to  crush  all 
intellectual  leadership  in  the  other  Hungarian 
parties.  Where  this  has  been  done  they  think 
the  people  will  soon  succumb.  Hence  their 
gymnasiums  and  museums  are  shut  up  ;  higher 
education  can  only  be  acquired  through  the 
medium  of  the  Magyar  language.  All  history 
is  arranged  for  the  glorification  of  the  Magyars. 
All  who,  armed  with  talent  and  courage,  try/ 
to  defend  the  language  and  the  rights  of  their 
people  are  persecuted.  As  deputies,  as  authors, 
as  orators,  priests,  teachers,  and  editors,  they 
are  interfered  with  by  every  means  in  the  power 
of  their  rulers — and  of  these  there  are  many  in 
Hungary  ! 

"To  give  you  some  idea  of  the  spirit  by  which 
these  persecutors  are  inspired  I  will  reprint 
what  a  Government  paper  recently  wrote  about 
the  Slovak  Hlinka,  a  man  who  by  his  talent  and 
his  faithfulness  towards  his  people  would  be 
an  ornament  to  any  nation.  -  He  ought,'  so  it 
said,  'to  be  flayed.  He  ought  to  be  flayed 


A  SUPPLEMENT  139 

alive  and  then  have  boiling  fat  poured  on  his 
trembling  flesh  !  ' 

"  The  press  of  the  different  nationalities  is 
deprived  of  all  freedom  of  speech  through  an 
endless  number  of  prosecutions,  imprisonments, 
and  fines,  with  the  result  that  paper  after  paper 
goes  under.  A  list  has  been  sent  to  me  con- 
taining the  number  of  those  who  during  the 
last  few  years  have  been  found  guilty  of  crimes 
against  the  hegemony  of  the  Magyars.  My 
correspondent  says  that  the  lists  are  far  from 
complete.  In  spite  of  this  they  show  that  the 
yery  humble  journalists  of  a  small  Slovak 
paper  have  during  recent  years  been  made  to 
pay  together  in  fines  about  five  thousand 
Austrian  crowns,  and  have  together  been 
imprisoned  for  about  four  years.  Since  the 
present  Government  came  into  power  (April 
.8,  1906),  the  spokesmen  of  nationalities,  especi- 
ally the  journalists,  have,  taken  together,  been 
in  prison  for  about  eighteen  years  and  they 
have  paid  over  eighteen  thousand  Austrian 
crowns  in  fines.  And  please  remember  that 
the  lists  ;are  not  complete.  If  any  one  helps 
them  to  pay  the  fines  and  this  becomes  known, 
those  persons  are  punished.  If  any  one,  man 
or  woman,  goes  to  meet  the  martyr  when  he 
comes  out  of  prison,  he  is  punished. 

•"  If  this  wretched  people  raise  a  monument 
over  a  dead  martyr,  the  act  is  regarded  as  an 


140        PACIFISM  AND   ITS  ADVERSARIES 

insurrection.  A  military  cordon  is  placed 
round  the  cemetery  to  hinder  the  unveiling  of 
the  monument. 

"  .We  must,  when  we  read  this,  always 
remember  that  the  language  of  these  nationali- 
ties brings  them  into  constant  touch  with 
peoples  of  a  kindred  race  in  surrounding 
districts.  To  drive  them  into  Magyarism  is  like 
tying  them  up  in  a  sack. 

"  A  'certain  Slovak  wrote  in  his  will  that  three 
hundred  Austrian  crowns  were  to  be  given  to 
help  Slovak  school -children  (you  will  soon  hear 
why).  The  authorities  refused  to  allow  the 
money  to  be  paid,  on  the  pretence  that  Slovak 
school  -  children  were  not  a  society  or  an 
institution— and  the  will  was  declared  invalid. 
The  law-courts  sided  with  the  authorities. 
Again,  a  Russian  bequeathed  160,000  Austrian 
crowns  to  promote  the  educational  interests  of 
the  Slovak  people,  and  appointed  executors. 
The  authorities  got  hold  of  a  drunken  brother 
of  the  testator,  who  was  told  to  claim  the 
inheritance.  But  he  would  not  allow  himself 
to  be  made  use  of.  The  authorities  then  tried 
to  declare  that  he  was  insane  and  to  put  him 
under  trustees  in  order  to  get  hold  of  the  money, 
in  this  way.  This  attempt  also  was  unsuccess- 
ful, and  during  the  course  of  further  proceedings 
the  man  died.  Then  more  distant  relations 
were  hunted  up  and  made  to  claim  the  money. 


A  SUPPLEMENT  141 

The  process  is  still  going  on.  The  plan  is  that 
;as  the  law-courts,  in  any,  case,  make  the  estate 
of  the  testator  pay,  the  costs,  the  Slovaks  will 
lose  a  great  part  of  the  inherited  fortune. 

"  The  Pan -Magyars  tried  to  get  hold  of  as 
many  Slovak  children  as  possible.  They  made 
a  law  according  to  which  orphan  children  or 
those  who  had  lost  one  of  their  parents,  or  in 
any  other  way  were  not  sure  of  being  provided 
for,  were  sent  into  the  Magyar  country  proper 
and  were  educated  there.  The  children  suffered 
enormously.  Many  died,  many  ran  away,  and 
their  cries  became  so  loud  that  they  were  heard 
in  Russia  and  in  Bohemia  and  the  law  had  to 
be  allowed  to  fall  to  some  extent  into  abeyance. 
But  Magyar  Kindergartens  were  then  invented 
and  the  Slovak  children  were  forced  into  these. 
The  parents  are  now  being  fined  if  they  do  not 
send  their  children  there  from  the  age  of  three. 
When  the  fines — the  hungry  Magyar's  universal 
remedy — are  not  forthcoming,  a  writ  of  execu- 
tion follows,  and  revolting!  scenes  take  place. 

"  But  nothing  of  what  I  have  hitherto 
described  is  in  its  origin  or  in  its  results  so 
damning  to  the  jruling  Magyar  coterie  as  my 
next  examptle. 

"  I  come  of  a  free  and  self-governing  people, 
and  neither  in  this  or  in  any  other  Scandi- 
navian nation  is  there  such  a  thing!  as  falsifica- 
tion of  election  returns.  To  falsify  the  election 


142        PACIFISM  AND   ITS  ADVERSARIES 

returns  of  a  people  would  in  our  eyes  be  as 
bad  as  poisoning;  the  nation's  water  supply. 

"  Falsified  election  returns  !  What  kind  of  3 
legislation  assembly  would  result?  What  kind 
of  laws  would  such  an  assembly  enact?  But 
what  we  should  consider  the  very  worst  dis- 
grace conceivable  in  our  political  life,  with  the 
Pan-Magyars  is  a  normal  state  of  affairs. 

•"  I  cannot  give  a  short  sketch  of  Hungarian 
election  laws  ;  the  rules  are  far  too  hopelessly, 
confused.  I  venture  to  say  openly  that  the 
Hungarian  election  laws  of  1848,  partly  revised 
in  1874,  were  framed  by  dishonest  men  for  a 
dishonest  purpose.  If  any  one  should  think 
that  this  is  speaking  too  harshly  he  can  pass 
over  from  the  law  and  study  the  conditions 
of  elections,  which  are  based  on  it.  These  are 
drawn  up  in  such  a  way  that  in  Hungarian 
Rumania  5,161  electors  may  be  apportioned  to 
twelve  districts  so  as  to  return  twelve  Magyar 
representatives,  while  5,275  electors  may  be 
jerrymandered  into  one  single  district  so  as  to 
return  only  one  Rumanian  representative !  x 

"  As  if  this  dishonest  arrangement  were  not 
enough  to  secure  the  end  in  view,  the  law 
contains  a  clause  whereby  a  man  may  be 
proposed  by  ten  electors  and  be  elected  by 
acclamation  before  the  electors  have  had  time 
to  come  to  the  polling  stations.  (This  is  accom- 

1  These  figures  are  taken  from  the  elections  of  1892. 


A  SUPPLEMENT  143 

plished  as  follows  :  The  polling  station  is  fixed 
in  a  place  as  inaccessible  to  the  Rumanians  as 
possible,  a  long  journey  being  necessary,  to 
reach  the  spot.  But  it  is  easily  accessible  for 
the  Magyars.  (The  election  begins  at  nine  in 
the  morning  and  during  the  first  half-hour 
it  can  happen  that  a  man  is  proposed  and 
elected  by  acclamation.  There  are  other 
equally  monstrous  and  scandalous  conditions. 
But  I  will  pass  them  by.  I  shall  only  mention 
that  the  Magyars  themselves  decide  whether 
the  election  is  valid  or  not ! 

"  And  now  about  the  elections  themselves — i.e. 
in  those  districts  where  the  Pan-Magyars  are 
afraid  of  not  having  a  majority.  I  have  before 
me  here  a  description  of  an  election  where  the 
large  majority  were  Germans.  The  result  of 
the  election— a  Magyar  !  The  people  dared  not 
show  themselves ;  they  barred  their  doors ! 
and  it  was  most  necessary.  Even  the  pupils — 
all  young  girls — in  an  ancient  public  institution 
were  in  danger. 

"  I  shall  write  about  Hungary's  election  laws, 
election  conditions,  and  election  rights  in  a 
great  English  paper.  There  it  will  have  effect. 
But  here— and  not  there — I  shall  make  the 
following  remark : — 

"  We  do  not  know  how  many  Germans  there 
are  in  Hungary.  The  Magyar  statistics,  which 
make  every  one  a  Magyar,  are  not  of  any 


144        PACIFISM  AND  ITS  ADVERSARIES 

use.  Some  say  that  there  are  two  million 
Germans,  others  that  there  are  two  and  a  half 
millions.  I  ask  now :  If  two  and  a  half  million 
Englishmen  were  being  ill -treated  and  scoffed 
at  as  are  those  two  or  two  and  a  half  million 
.Germans  in  Hungary,  at  present,  what  would 
be  the  result?  Or  would  the  Pan -Magyar  party 
on  the  whole  have  dared  to  do  as  they  are 
doing  now? 

"The  Hungarian  King  has  now  promised  to 
introduce  a  Bill  in  favour  of  universal  suffrage. 
Does  any  one  who  knows  the  Pan-Magyar  party 
believe  that  he  will  be  allowed  to  keep  his 
royal  word? 

"There  is  no  freedom  of  intercourse  in 
Hungary.  The  public  meetings  which  were 
advertised  among  the  Nationalists  to  discuss 
this  royal  promise  were  almost  all  prohibited. 
It  does  not  augur  well.  It  is  only  a  year, 
since  one  of  the  chief  leaders  of  the  party, 
now  in  the  Government,  publicly  lauded  the 
existing  election  laws  and  the  election  condi- 
tions. As  a  psychologist  I  shall  vouch  for 
it  that  such  leaders  are  unable  to  introduce  a 
suffrage  Bill  which  is  straightforward  and 
honest  in  all  its  details. 

"All  can  understand  that  the  present  state 
of  affairs  is  equally  harmful  to  the  oppressors 
and  to  the  oppressed.  Nor  can  any  one 
seriously  believe  that  a  happy  Fatherland  is 


A  SUPPLEMENT  145 

built  up  upon  falsehood,  to  which  naturally  the 
resj  anse  is  faithlessness  ;  upon  arrogance,  to 
Which  the  response  is  hypocrisy  ;  upon  wrongs, 
to  Which  the  response  is  hatred.  Where  is  to 
be  found  the  young  Magyar  noble  enough  to 
break  the  ranks  of  tradition  and  shout  to  his 
brethren :  '  We  shall  obey  .God  rather  than 
man'? 

"  How  many  do  not  think  with  me  at  present? 
If  the  Magyars  in  1867  had  allowed  the  world 
language,  German,  to  become  the  general 
language  which,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  it 
was  in  a  fair  way  to  become,  while  all  the 
other  languages  had  retained  their  full  liberty, 
would  Hungary  not  be  happier  to-day?  Would 
not  all  her  people  be  more  united,  more  en- 
lightened, and,  therefore,  more  endowed  with 
material  success?  Would  the  conditions  of 
election  not  have  been  changed  long!  ago,  the 
elections  have  become  natural,  the  laws  honest? 
Would  not  greater  freedom,  greater  loyalty  have 
been  secured,  all  the  processes  of  government 
have  become  more  simple,  administration 
cheaper,  finance  sounder? 

"  Then  would  the  Magyar  craving  for  expan- 
sion, which  testifies  to  a  crude,  undisciplined 
force,  have  had  a  nobler  aim  and  a  healthier 
ambition  than  to  convert,  by  force,  all  fellow- 
citizens  into  Magyars,  and  all  surrounding 

peoples  into  enemies." 

10 


146        PACIFISM  AND   ITS  ADVERSARIES 

So  far  Bjornstjerne  Bjornson  !  Further  we 
add  (from  Arthur  Christensen's  "  Politics  and 
Mass  Morals,"  'Copenhagen,  1911,  p.  142) 
the  following  description  of  Hungarian 
elections  : — 

"  In  Hungary  the  non-Magyar,  nationalities 
had  before  the  elections  of  1910  only  23  repre- 
sentatives. This  number  was  reduced  at  the 
last  elections  to  7,  while  the  Magyars,  who 
form  the  smaller  half  of  the  population  (45^ 
per  cent.)>  got  347  candidates  returned.  In 
spite  of  the  special  peculiarities  of  Hungarian 
election  laws,  this  result  caused  general  sur- 
prise. The  Times  published  the  following 
Vienna  telegram,  dated  June  10th :  '  The 
Hungarian  Prime  Minister,  Count  Khuen- 
Hedervary,  declared  to-day,  in  the  Budapesti 
Hirlap,  that  all  reports  about  the  use  of  troops 
in  favour  of  Government  candidates  at  the 
recent  elections  are  absolutely  unfounded,  and 
that  the  troops  did  nothing  but  maintain  order 
and  protect  life  and  property.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  Reichspost  and  the  Neue  Freie  Presse 
published  a  signed  statement  by  the  well- 
known  Scotsman  Mr.  Seton  Watson,  who  was 
present  on  the  day  of  the  election  in  Scakolega 
in  the  Nyitra  Komitat ;  it  tends  to  show  that 
the  whole  town  was  surrounded  by  troops,  and 
that  none  except  those  who  supported  the 
Government  candidate  were  allowed  to  pass. 


A   SUPPLEMENT  147 

And  four  thousand  Slovaks,  among  them  many 
hundred  electors,  were  confined  in  a  dusty  open 
space  outside  the  town  for  many  hours. 
Several  hundred  Slovak  electors  who  at  last 
gained  admission  to  the  town,  and  who  stood 
waiting  in  the  sun  for  two  hours  between  rows 
of  soldiers,  were  in  the  end  driven  back  by 
police-officers  without  having  had  an  oppor- 
tunity of  voting.  In  view  of  the  fury  which 
arose  over  this,  the  Slovak  candidate  withdrew 
finally,  to  avoid  bloodshed.  Professor  Jorga, 
in  his  pamphlet  mentioned  above,  '  Les  derniers 
elections  en  Hongrie  et  les  Roumains,'  records 
episodes  of  the  same  kind,  and  gives  details 
every  bit  as  scandalous  from  districts  where 
Roumanian  candidates  stood  for  election.  In 
The  Times  of  August  23,  1910,  we  find  the 
following  report  from  their  correspondent  in 
Rudapest :  '  The  tales  of  violence,  bribery,  in- 
timidation, and  intrigues  employed  during  the 
elections  in  May  by  the  Government,  as  well 
as  by  the  Opposition,  are  in  the  main  true. 

V ,  one  of  the  most  brilliant  members  of  the 

National  Labour  Party,  acknowledged  frankly 
under  debate  that  all  kinds  of  abuses  had  taken 
place,  but  added :  '  Let  us  not  forget  that  we 
are  Magyars,  and  that  election  trickery  is 
an  old  habit  in  our  history.'  .  .  .  For 
centuries  all  Magyar  parties  have  sinned  in 
this  respect," 


148        PACIFISM  AND   ITS  ADVERSARIES 

Is  not  this  a  fine  illustration  of  the  impor- 
tance of  the  realization  of  the  "  rights  of  peace," 
and  of  the  absolute  necessity  for  the  victory  of 
the  peace  movement?  For  how  could  a  lasting 
peace  be  possible  in  countries  where  such  con- 
ditions prevail,  or  between  nations  who  face 
each  other  in  such  a  manner?  l 

So  much  for  the  conditions  and  the  senti- 
ments of  the  conquered  people.  With  those 
who  are  still  independent,  especially  among 
small  nations,  the  great  obsession  is  the  fear 
of  being  conquered.  The  thought  of  when  their 
turn  is  coming  is  like  a  nightmare.  This  thought 
is  very  strongly  expressed  in  the  following  plea 
from  the  Danish  lady  artist,  Fru  Agnes  Slott- 
Moller,  published  in  the  form  of 

"AN    OPEN;    LETTER 
To  THE  DANISH  WOMEN'S  UNION  FOR  DEFENCE. 

"  MADAM,— 

"I  see  in  the  National  Tidene  that  the 
Danish  Women's  Union  for  [National]  Defence 
has  received  gifts  towards  the  Defence  Fund 
in  other  forms  than  in  ready  money.  It  has 
struck  me  that  my  husband  and  I,  who  would 
like  with  all  our  hearts  to  help  as  much  as 

1  See  also  Arthur  Christensen,  "  Politics  and  Mass 
Morals,"  pp.  81-4  (sketch  of  the  Denshawai  affair). 


A  SUPPLEMENT  149 

possible,  might  give  you  one  of  our  pictures, 
as  we  cannot  afford  to  give  a  large  sum  of 
money.  The  Union  for  the  Defence  might  then 
be  able  to  convert  it  and  other  gifts  into  cash 
by  some  means — for  instance,  by  raffling  or 
auction  sale. 

[A  request  to  other  artists  to  make  similar 
contributions  follows.] 

"  Undoubtedly  the  bearers  of  culture,  and 
among  these  the  artists  of  the  country,  as  surely 
as  noblesse  oblige,  ought  to  be  ready  to  guard 
in  every  way  the  culture  for  which  their  whole 
lives  stand.  And  they  ought  to  be  among  the 
first  to  understand  that  if  our  country  lost  its 
independence,  all  independent  Danish  art  and 
culture  would  be  threatened.  Not  only  would 
these  be  pushed  aside  and  not  appreciated,  but 
when  the  stranger  became  master  in  the  land, 
they  would  simply  be  forbidden,  suppressed, 
maimed,  and,  if  possible,  crushed  out  of 
existence. 

"It  is  strange  how  little  we  in  Denmark  learn 
from  what  is  going  on  every  day  under  our 
very  eyes  in  South  Jutland,  although  we  can 
see  very  clearly  what  life  would  be  like  in 
Denmark  if  our  whole  country  were  made  ,a 
part  of  the  German  Empire.  We  live  here  ,as 
a  rich  people,  who  do  not  know  what  poverty 
means,  and  who  yet  may  be  exposed  any  day 
to  the  direst  misery.  .What  we  consider  as 


150        PACIFISM  AND   ITS  ADVERSARIES 

quite  matter-of-fact  necessities  of  life,  and  what 
really  also  is  the  foundation  of  all  work  and 
existence,  that  we  possess  a  language  of  our 
own,  an  independent  country,  whose  history 
and  monuments,  consciously  or  unconsciously, 
are  part  of  our  dearest  spiritual  possessions, 
that  the  work  of  every  one  in  the  end  has 
one  common  aim,  the  upholding  of  the  national 
individuality,  its  skill,  and  its  right  to  exist — 
these  are  all  boons  of  which  a  people  are  robbed 
When  they  fall  under  foreign  domination.  It 
would  mean  in  the  first  place  that  the  Uni- 
versity would  be  closed ;  or  if  it  were  not 
quite  closed  (so  that  young  Danes  wishing  to 
study  would  have  to  go  to  German  Universi- 
ties), only  German  scientists — and  Germany  is 
rich  in  scientists — would  be  appointed  teachers 
in  all  subjects.  Danish  as  a  scientific  subject 
would,  of  course,  be  dropped  from  the  pro- 
gramme of  this  German  University,  and  the  study 
of  the  Danish  language,  and  therewith  of  the 
Danish  consciousness,  would  be  left  to  private 
initiative.  The  study  of  Danish  history  would 
be  of  no  value  in  the  eyes  of  those  in  power 
so  far  as  it  did  not  serve  German  inter- 
ests, and  did  not  serve  to  prove  that  the 
Danes,  properly  speaking,  always  had  been 
German. 

"  And  the  treasures  of  our  national  Museum, 
which,   gathered  as  they  are  now,  thanks   to 


A  SUPPLEMENT  151 

distinguished  Danish  scientists,  show  us,  as  in 
a  mirror,  the  development  from  ancient  times 
of  the  culture  of  our  own  country — what  would 
become  of  them?  Would  not  such  a  museum 
be  considered  as  a  dangerous  institution,  too 
strengthening  to  national  self-respect  to  be 
allowed  to  remain  in  the  former  capital  of  the 
country  ? 

;<  When  a  South  Jutland  peasant  nowadays 
finds,  when  ploughing  his  field,  if  not  a  horn 
of  gold,  yet  old  stone  axes — ancient  weapons, 
utensils,  or  ornaments,  everything  as  Danish  as 
it  is  old — the  Landrath  of  the  place  will  quickly 
appear  and  will  demand  that  the  objects  be 
handed  over  to  the  museum  in  Kiel,  so  that 
they  may  belong  to  German  scientists — that  is, 
if  the  peasant  does  not  prefer  to  cover  these 
ancient  treasures  up  again  with  the  earth  till 
better  days  shall  come. 

"In  the  museum  in  Kiel  may  be  seen  to-day 
all  that  excavation  has  brought  to  the  light 
of  day  at  Dannevirke  ;  nor  has  the  Sigtrygstone 
itself,  a  gigantic  runic  stone  which  stood  near 
the  Haldredshill  at  Hedeby,  with  Danish  runic 
inscription,  telling  of  Danish  history,  been 
allowed  to  remain  in  its  place  where  it  had 
stood  from  distant  ages,  "  when  Kamper  rode 
round  Hedeby,"  but  it  also  has  been  carried 
off  to  Kiel. 

"  And  in  the  German  Museum  of  Antiquities 


152        PACIFISM  AND  ITS  ADVERSARIES 

in  Flensborg,  Danish  tourists  can  find,  among 
old  Saxon,  Dutch,  and  Friesian  objects,  bap- 
tismal fonts  from  Danish  churches,  which  had 
been  in  use  from  the  time  when  Knud  Lavard 
held  court  in  Sleswig,  and  ruled  the  land  as 
"  the  Duke  of  all  Denmark "  ;  altar  chests, 
which  were  the  ornaments  of  churches  in 
Flensborg  at  the  time  of  Queen  Margrethe,  old 
guild  banners,  and  the  trades  guild  emblems 
from  bygone  centuries  ;  furniture  of  Danish 
citizens  of  all  kinds,  bearing  Danish  inscrip- 
tions, yes,  even  entire  Danish  peasant  rooms, 
as  they  have  stood  and  stand  to-day,  one  from 
Romo,  one  from  Gjenner  (between  Aabenraa 
and  Haderslev),  etc.  At  the  conquest  of  South 
Jutland  in  the  last  war  all  these  things  fell 
into  the  hands  of  the  Germans.  How,  I  wonder, 
would  they  dispose  of  Rosenberg  or  Frederiks- 
borg  if,  after  the  fall  of  Copenhagen,  they  had 
the  power  to  deal  with  those  castles?  The 
Historical  Inventory  can  easily  be  made  part 
of  the  Kunstgewerbe  Museum  in  Rerlin,  like 
the  lion  from  the  Flensborg  Cemetery,  which' 
was  dragged  to  Rerlin,  and  is  now  the  ornament 
of  some  military  school  there. 

"  And  things  which  cannot  be  dragged  away, 
they  would  alter,  and  put  their  stamp  on  so 
that  it  would  be  more  bitter  than  death  to 
see  them  apparently  still  existing ;  how  would 
Kronborg  look  with  the  Prussian  eagle  over 


A  SUPPLEMENT  153 

its  main  gate  above  Kin-go's  inscription,  "  Step  in 
if  thou  art  worthy  ;  my  vault  to  thee  I  open  "  ? 
Or  with  what  feelings  should  we  see  the  German 
flag  flying  from  the  flag-battery  at  the  entrance 
to  the  Sound  with  Kronborg  as  a  German 
background? 

"  And  all  thie  living  human  beings  in  the 
country— what  would  their  fate  be,  generation 
after  generation? 

"  With  the  accession  of  a  Prussian  Govern- 
ment all  the  country's  own  officials  would  be 
deposed  immediately,  and  German  officials  put 
in  their  place.  If  any  one  has  not  got  imagi- 
nation enough  to  picture  what  it  means  to  a 
people  to  lose  its  own  royal  house,  let  him 
read  in  old  Herr  P..  Skau's  Memoirs  the  de- 
scription of  that  day  in  Kolding,  in  1864,  when 
the  South  Jutlanders  came  forward  to  say  good- 
bye to  their  rightful  King,  a  born  South  Jutland 
man  himself,  King  Christian  IX.  No  Dane 
can  read  this  without  tears. 

"  In  every  branch  of  administration  German 
would  take  the  place  of  Danish  officials,  and 
these  would  all — no  matter  how  high  their 
qualifications  or  position — be  deprived  of  the 
means  of  a  livelihood. 

"  The  Church  would  become  German  ;  into 
all  our  Danish  parsonages,  with  their  rose-beds, 
and  with  their  storks'  nests  on  the  roofs, 
German  priests  would  move  in  as  the  Danish 


154        PACIFISM  AND   ITS  ADVERSARIES 

priests  left,  as  happened  everywhere  in  Sleswig, 
only  with  this  exception,  that  after  '64  the  South 
Jutland  priests  got  appointed  to  parishes  in 
Denmark,  while  now  they  would  be  without 
any  kind  of  appointment  anywhere. 

"  In  Sleswig  there  are  now  really  no  means 
of  living  open  to  Danes  other  than  to  become 
merchants  or  farmers  ;  wealthy  and  intellectual 
peasant  boys  have  no  inducement  to  study,  for 
they  will  never  get  a  public  post  anyhow  or 
any  official  position  if  they  maintain  their 
Danish  sympathies,  however  obedient  they  may 
be  to  the  law  as  German  subjects.  And  in 
the  same  way  all  the  Danes  in  our  kingdom 
would  as  quickly  as  possible  be  deprived  of 
all  employment  Which  has  anything  to  do  with 
the  weal  and  woe  of  their  native  land.  That 
the  schools,  too,  would  as  quickly  as  possible 
be  made  German  is  perfectly  self-evident,  When 
we  recall  how  all  the  Danish  schools  in  Sleswig 
have  not  only  been  closed,  but  how  all  private 
teaching  in  the  homes  by  a  Danish  teacher, 
male  or  female,  has  been  forbidden. 

"  And  our  High  Schools  !  How  the  Prussians 
would  revel  in  striking  a  blow  at  them  in 
revenge  for  all  the  harm  done  by  them  in 
teaching  Danish  to  South  Jutlanders  and 
by  strengthening  the  Danish  people  in  their 
nationality  and  religion  and  in  their  fight 
against  invading  Germanism. 


A  SUPPLEMENT  155 

*c  And  "  the  fine  Arts  "—of  what  use  would 
they  be  in  a  land  conquered  by  the  enemy? 
Rightly  art,  to  its  honour  be  it  said,  is  con- 
sidered one  of  the  most  dangerous  opponents 
a  State  can  have  which  is  aiming  at  crushing 
the  individuality  of  a  people.  A  people  who 
are  to  be  crushed  must  not  see  the  beauties 
of  their  country  in  pictures  which  will  make 
them  love  still  more  deeply  its  green  islands 
and  its  blue  waves ;  they  must  not  hear 
the  airs  or  sing  the  song's  in  which  the 
mother  tongue  voices  her  love  for  her  native 
land. 

"  With  what  fanatical  zeal  is  not  all  Danish 
scenic  art  forbidden  by  the  Prussian  State 
in  Sleswig  !  Even  public  readings  of  the  works 
of  Danish  poets  are  forbidden,  so  much  is  the 
power  of  art  feared,  working  as  it  does 
with  twofold  power  through  the  words  of 
the  poet  and  the  art  of  the  actor. 

"  And  what  would  our  actors,  petted  and 
spoilt,  say  if  the  National  Theatre  were  closed 
and  all  Danish  plays  were  forbidden  all  over 
the  land,  and  if  they  were  all  condemned  to 
dumb  silence  and  poverty?  To  forbid  the 
painter  to  paint  pictures  or  the  sculptor 
to  make  busts  wiould  be  less  practicable, 
but  in  proportion  to  the  value  and  impor- 
tance which  their  national  stamp  gives  them 
in  our  eyes  would  be  the  diminution  of 


156        PACIFISM  AND   ITS  ADVERSARIES 

their  recognition  in  the  eyes  of  the  foreign 
conqueror. 

"  The  Academy  iwould  share  the  same  fate  as 
the  University, ;  if  it  were  kept  open  at  all 
it  would  be  in  the  hands  of  German  directors, 
with  German  professors  in  official  positions  as 
teachers  in  all  branches. 

"  Danish  architects  would  have  to  look  on 
quietly,  while  German  architects  *  restored  ' — 
that  is,  destroyed  —  our  old  churches  and 
other  public  buildings,  as  they  are  at  present 
destroying  the  cathedral  in  Sleswig  by  -  restor- 
ing '  it  in  their  altdeutsch  fashion  (while 
its  sister  church,  the  Cathedral  of  Aarhus,  has 
at  the  very  same  time  been  brought  back  to 
its  original  style  and  may  now  be  seen  in  its 
perfect  beauty,  thanks  be  to  the  careful,  skilful 
knowledge  and  sure  and  perfect  taste  of  a 
Danish  artist). 

"  Here,  in  Sleswig,  you  so  often  hear  people 
say  in  despair,  when  things  go  wrong,  'It 
would  indeed  be  much  better  to  become 
Germans  I ' 

•"  No  more  idiotic  words  could  be  uttered. 
No  greater,  no  more  far-reaching  misfortune 
can  happen  to  an  ancient,  highly  developed 
nationality  than  to  come  under  foreign  rule." 

(This  is  indeed  a  sad  perspective.  Why 
should  men  be  so  wicked  in  their  relations 


A  SUPPLEMENT  157 

with  one  another?  Is  it  not  worth  while  to 
join  in  the  crusade  to  prevent  men  from  being 
worried  by  such  a  nightmare,  to  free  them 
from  the  fear  of  such  misfortune--//zatf  is  to 
say,  to  join  in  the  crusade  for  the  recognition 
of  "the  rights  of  peace"?  That  is  the  first 
and  at  the  same  time  the  most  powerful  factor 
for  the  promotion  of  the  victory  of  the  cause  of 
peace,  for  the  abolition  of  wars,  and  for  the 
establishment  in  its  place  of  a  peaceful,  legal, 
and  just  settlement. 


THE   RIGHTS  OF  PEACE 

AFTER  this  description  of  a  state  of  affairs 
where  natural  human  rights  are  trampled 
under  foot,  we  may  pass  on  to  set  down 
a  list  of  those  general  human  rights  which 
are  the  acknowledged  possession  of  every 
human  being  without  exception,  even  of  those 
who  live  within  the  borders  of  another  nation. 
If  some  of  these  rights  should  appear  to  the 
reader  to  be  so  self-evident  that  it  is  super- 
fluous to  emphasize  them,  then  I  must  maintain 
that  there  is  not  one  of  them  that  has  not  been 
sinned  against  in  this  twentieth  century  by  the 
nations  most  advanced  in  culture. 

I  put  forward,  then,  the  following  theses  :— 

1.  The  parental  right  is  inviolable  as  long 
as  the  most  elementary  duties  of  the  parents 
are   fulfilled.     The  State   cannot   deprive   the 
parents    of   their   parental    right    on    account 
of  their  national  feelings. 

2.  The  parents  must  have  liberty  to  decide 
freely  about  the  school  language  of  the  child. 
The  State  ought  not  to  force  any  father  to  let 

168 


THE  RIGHTS  OF  PEACE  159 

his  child  be  taught  in  any  other  tongue  than  its 
mother  tongue,  but  may,  at  the  most,  demand 
that  the  school  shall  give  the  child  a  know- 
ledge of  the  official  language  of  the  State 
as  well. 

3.  The  State  ought  not  to   have  power  to 
forbid    private    teaching    or    private    schools 
which    fulfil    the    minimum    demands    of    the 
official  school  inspection. 

4.  When   in   a   school    district   half   of  the 
inhabitants  (perhaps  even  less  than  half)  belong 
to  a  foreign  nationality    (especially  if  it  is  a 
conquered  nationality)  then  these  inhabitants, 
in  countries  where  there  is  compulsory  educa- 
tion, have  a  right  to  claim  that  the  State  shall 
teach  their  children  in  their  native  language — 
that  the  native  tongue  shall  be  the  language  of 
instruction  and  be  used  in  all  subjects.     This 
demand  is  easily  justified,  as  the  same  right  is 
granted  to  negro  tribes  and  to  Eskimos  and  is 
presupposed  ;as  a  matter  of  course  in  ;all  mission 
work.1 

5.  Where    a   population    of,    say,    at    least 
100,000  individuals  of  foreign  nationality  are 
living  together   (especially  if  it  is  a  conquered 

1  First  of  all  it  is,  of  course,  an  irrefutable  claim  that 
religious  instruction  by  the  State  school  must  be  given  in 
the  mother  tongue.  But  a  real  instruction  in  religion  in 
the  mother  tongue  presupposes  lessons  on  the  mother 
tongue  as  well. 


160        PACIFISM  AND  ITS  ADVERSARIES 

nationality),  there  these  people  have  an 
undeniable  right  to,  have  teachers  (and 
priests)  from  among  themselves  and  of  their 
own  nationality,  who  can  teach  their  children 
in  the  State  school.  This  right,  too,  is  easily 
justified  by  pointing  to  the  mission -field,  where 
it  is  accepted  as  a  matter  of  course.  What 
is  granted  to  negroes  and  to  Eskimos  should 
not  be  denied  to  civilized  people  in  Europe. 

6.  Where  the  majority  of  the  population  (or 
even    less    than    the    majority)    belong    to    a 
foreign  nationality   (especially  if  a  conquered 
nationality)  there  their  own  language  should  be 
heard  in  the  churches,  not  only  every  second, 
third,    or   fourth   Sunday,    but    every,   Sunday 
(compare  the  mission -field). 

7.  Where  there  is  a  State  church,  the  priest 
in  charge  must  be  able  to  speak  the  language 
of  the  congregation,  or  rather  he  must  himself 
be  of  the  nationality,  of  the  congregation.     If 
the  congregation  be  bi-lingual,  then  the  service 
may  be   held  in  both   languages  but  by  two 
different  persons. 

8.  No  one  ought  to  be  forced  to  pay  taxes  in 
support  of  a  State  Church.    It  should  be  freely 
permitted  to  foreign  nationalities  to  form  Free 
Churches    of   their   own,    and    thereby,   to    be 
exempted   from  all   contributions   to   the  State 
Church.      The    church    building   itself    ought, 
especially  if  it  originally  belonged  to  the  con- 


THE  RIGHTS  OF  PEACE  161 

quered   nation,   to   be   available   for  the   Free 
Church  members. 

9.  Where  half,  or  perhaps   even  less  than 
half,   of  the  population  belongs   to   a   foreign 
nationality  (especially  a  conquered  one)  it  has 
the  right  to  claim  that  its  language  shall  be 
heard   in    the   law-courts.      In    districts,    e.g., 
where    100,000    people    dwell,    so    that    they 
form   the    majority    of  the   population,    there 
they   have   the  right   to    demand    that   judges 
and    police     officials    shall    be     taken     from 
their   own    nationality    and   speak    their    own 
language. 

10.  The  conception  of  the   freedom  of  the 
press  carries  with  it  as  a  matter  of  course  the 
assumption    that   printed   writings    and   news- 
papers    everywhere    in    the    world    may    be 
published  in  any  language  whatsoever. 

11.  The  principle  of  freedom  of  association 
and  of  union  carries  with  it  as  a  matter  of  course 
the    corollary   that   in    assemblies    and   public 
meetings  everywhere  in  the  world  any  language 
whatsoever  may  be  used  (Chinese  and  German 
in  New  York,  Welsh  in  London,  etc.) — at  any 
rate,  when  this  is  the  mother  tongue  of  those 
assembled. 

12.  All  citizens  ought,  apart  from  nationality, 
or  social  or  political  position,  to  enjoy  equal 
rights  under  the  law  and  its  administrators  (the 
police).      Nowhere    in   the   world    must   it    be 

11 


162        PACIFISM  AND   ITS  ADYERSAEIES 

possible  to  'enact  laws  regarding  general  affairs, 
regarding  language,  church,  or  school,  or 
regarding  freedom  of  association  and  of  the 
press,  which  only  hold  for  certain  citizens  in 
the  country  and  not  for  others,  or  for  certain 
provinces  (veiled)  or  parts  of  the  country  and 
not  for  others. 

13.  The  rights  of  property  ought,  as  long 
as  the  present  order  of  society  exists,  to  be 
inviolable,  and  the  State  must  not  be  able  to 
transgress    the    private    rights    of    possession 
unless  this  is  really  necessary  in  the  public 
interest  and  unless  such  action  will  benefit  all 
citizens    alike    and    without    regard    to    their 
nationality  or  faith.      (As  a  rule  such  action 
should  only  be  taken  in  matters  of  economic 
interest    and    never    on    any    account    when 
religious,   national,   or   political    interests    are 
concerned.) 

14.  All   citizens  ought  to   have  full   liberty 
of  earning  a  livelihood.    As  regards  conquered 
nations   it  ought  to  be  a  question  of  honour 
with  the  ruling  nation  to  see  that  limitationjs 
in  respect  of  the  liberty  of  earning  a  livelihood, 
privileges,  concessions,  and  licences,  jus  practi- 
candi,   etc.,   shall  depend   entirely   on   qualifi- 
cations, training,   and  examinations,  never  on 
religious,  national,  or  political  considerations. 
The  same  should  hold   good   with  regard   to 
the  right  to  possess  land,  to  keep  a  hotel,  to 


THE   RIGHTS  OF  PEACE  163 

compete    at   examinations,    and   to    engage   in 
university  study,  etc. 

15.  A    population    of    foreign    nationality 
(especially  a  conquered  one)  have  the  right  to 
claim  proportional  admission  to  offices  of  trust 
and  emolument,  nay,  even  to  exclusive  admis- 
sion to  such  offices  within  their  own  district. 
Such  a  population  have  a  right  to  claim  that  in 
the   district  they  inhabit  the   railway,   postal, 
telegraph,   andf  customs  officials,  the  teachers, 
priests,  lawyers,  and  doctors,  etc.,  are  selected 
from    among   their  own    nationality,    and   not 
from    among    the    ruling    nationality — as    well 
for    economic   reasons   as   in   the   interests   of 
education.     This  claim  is  easily  justified,  like 
the  previous  ones,  by  showing  how,  as  far  as 
circumstances  allow  it,  this  is  realized  among 
Hindus,  Egyptians,  etc. 

16.  It  is  the  duty  of  the  State  to  work  for  the 
furtherance  of  education  among  all  its  citizens 
—including,  that  is,  those  of  foreign  nationality, 
and    even    for  the   furtherance   of   a   national 
system  of  education  among  these  latter.    The 
State  ought  thus,  not  only  not  to  hinder,  far  less 
to  forbid,  the  opening  of  higher  schools  and 
universities  and  other  educational  institutions 
which  take  their  character  from  and  use  the 
language  of  the  foreign  nationality,   but  it  is 
in   duty  bound  to  see  that  these  exist.     The 
right   to  this   concession   has   been  gained   by 


164        PACIFISM  AND   ITS  ADVERSARIES 

its  foreign  subjects,  partly  through  the  fact  of 
conquest,  partly,  by  their  payment  of  taxes  and 
their  subordination  to  the  law  and  order  of 
the  country.  The  claim  is  easily  justified  by 
the  fact  that  this  is  recognized  and  carried 
out  among  many  foreign  tribes. 

17.  Of  course  it  must  first  and  foremost  be 
recognized  by,  the  ruling  nation  as  a  primary 
obligation  of  honour  (if  that  nation  desires  to 
retain  any  moral  prestige  in  the  world)  that 
those  rights  which  are  granted  in  peace  treaties 
to  the  conquered  are  adhered  to  in  the  most 
minute  detail. 

This  does  not  pretend  to  be  in  any  way 
an  exhaustive  and  complete  enumeration  of  the 
rights  and  duties  of  the  individual  in  relation 
to  the  State— but  only  of  those  which  are  of 
interest  in  connection  with  the  question  at 
hand,  namely,  the  cause  of  peace. 

Much  of  what  has  been  said  here  will  to 
many  seem  self-evident.  If  an  American 
citizen  reads  it,  he  will  say  to  himself  : 
"  But  that  is  how  things  are  !  No  one  would 
for  a  moment  dream  of  anything  else."  The 
reading  of  the  Supplement  will  probably  cause 
him  to  change  his  mind.  And  a  ruling  nation, 
one  of  those  ruling  over  foreign  subjects,  will 
perhaps  take  refuge  in  a  sophism  and  say : 
"  Dear  me  !  All  these  claims  are  fulfilled  at  once 
even  for  'foreigners,  yes,  actually  fulfilled  the 


THE   RIGHTS  OF  PEACE  165 

moment  they  cease  to  feel  as  foreigners,  when 
they  give  up  their  nationality  and  adopt  our 
language,  our  culture,  and  our  mind." 

But  that  is  a  condition  which  no  one  has 
any  right  whatsoever  to  propose,  because  such 
a  condition  wars  against — against  what? 

Where  is  the  peculiar  fundamental  principle 
of  national  equality  to  be  found?  It  is  to  be 
found,  of  course,  at  the  same  source  as  the 
principle  of  legal  equality  between  individuals, 
at  the  same  source  as  the  principle  of  ethics 
generally.  Either  there  is  no  such  thing  as  an 
ethical  basis  in  the  affairs  of  men,  or,  if  there 
is,  it  must  involve  the  equality  of  nations  as 
well  as  that  of  individuals.1  If  the  principle 

1  From  many  quarters  the  hope  and  the  belief  is  voiced 
that  this  war  may  be  the  last  in  Europe.  And  among 
pacifist  nations  there  had  already  been  discussed  before 
the  outbreak  of  the  war  the  thought  of  a  coalition  of 
States  which  not  only  would  not  go  to  war  themselves, 
but  which  would  not  allow  other  States  to  do  so.  Let  us 
finally  in  this  connection  remark  that,  however  mighty 
the  victorious  coalition,  it  would  be  enabled  to  dictate 
peace  to  the  world  without  dictating  justice  at  the  same 
time.  If  a  pacifist,  fear-inspiring  coalition  undertakes 
to  dictate  peace  to  the  world,  then  it  undertakes  at  the 
same  time  the  obligation  of  establishing  justice  universally 
among  the  nations.  If  it  deprives  the  oppressed  and  the 
ill-treated  of  the  possibility  and  of  the  right  (should 
occasion  offer)  of  buying  their  liberty  by  the  help  of 
the  sword,  then  it  must  secure  this  liberty  for  them  in 
another  way  ;  that  is,  it  must  take  upon  itself  the  responsi- 
bility for  establishing  and  maintaining  the  rights  of  peace. 


166        PACIFISM  AND   ITS  ADVERSARIES 

"  Do  not  do  to  others  what  you  would  not  that 
they  should  do  to  you  "  holds  for  each  man 
separately,  then  this  must  hold  for  nations  also. 

Once  this  has  been  brought  about  the  con- 
ditions for  the  victory  of  the  peace  movement 
will  be  manifest.  All  objections  raised  by 
questions  of  honour,  independence,  and  in- 
tegrity, and  by  questions  of  life  or  death  (the 
life-or-death  struggle  will  and  must  con- 
tinue to  be  the  necessary  and  only  arbitration), 
will  be  met  with  the  answer  that  these  questions 
would  not  arise  among  nations  if  the  nations 
themselves  would  set  their  face  against  them. 

Between  two  friendly  nations  determined  to 
be  at  peace  with  each  other  and  ready  to  treat 
each  other  according  to  the  accepted  axiom, 
such  questions  cannot  arise  at  all.  And  if  a 
cause  of  strife  should  occur,  and  if  loud  cries 
arose  that  this  was  a  question  of  honour,  or 
of  sovereign  rights,  and  of  existence — a  ques- 
tion of  life  or  death — then  must  all  real 
Pacifists  cry  still  more  loudly  that  this  is  not 
the  case,  that  the  question  has  not  got  this 
enormous  weight  and  importance,  and  that 
through  calm  deliberation  and  discussion  a 
solution  may  be  found  acceptable  to  both 
parties. 

Questions  of  life  or  death  cannot,  as  a  rule, 
arise  among  nations,  except  as  the  outcome  of 
rude  violations  and  transgressions  of  justice  on 


THE   RIGHTS  OF  PEACE  167 

the  part  of  one  nation  against  another  or 
against  a  third  party.  These  would  be  elimi- 
nated by  the  establishment  of  the  defined  rights 
of  peace,  and  even  now  they  might  always  be 
avoided  if  the  nations  really  wanted  to  avoid 
them.1 

Let  the  Pacifist  movement,  therefore,  work 
with  might  and  main  for  the  creation  of  inter- 
national agreements  and  instruments.  But  let 
it  not  forget  that  these  are  secondary  matters, 
and  that  the  primary  condition  under  which 
international  law  shall  succeed  in  embracing 
all  the  nations — that  is,  in  securing  real  and 
full  acceptance — is  through  the  carrying  into 
practice  of  the  rights  of  peace.  Towards  this 
end  the  Pacifist  movement  must  in  the  first 
place  direct  all  its  forces.  This  is  new  work, 
but  it  is  work  of  the  first  importance.  The 
Pacifist  movement  must  necessarily,  if  it  is  to 
make  headway,  regard  the  fight  for  Free  trade 
and  for  the  rights  of  peace  as  a  fundamental 
plank  in  its  platform.  For  peace  must  be  the 
outcome  of  justice,  and  without  justice  it  is  a 
chimera,  and  does  not  exist. 

1  That  is,  the  arising  of  new  questions.  Those  already 
existing  (e.g.  the  Polish  question)  might,  through  the 
realization  of  the  rights  of  peace,  lose  a  great  deal  of  their 
poignancy,  though  they  will  probably  never  be  definitely 
solved. 


CHAPTER    V 


ON  THE  POSSIBILITIES  OP  THE  VICTOKY  OF  THE 
PEACE  MOVEMENT,  AND  OF  THE  EFFECTS 
THEBEOF 

Is  there  any.  reasonable  probability  of  further 
progress  in  the  peace  movement,  and  of 
securing  far-reaching  practical  results,  in  a 
not  too  distant  future?  That  is  the  question 
which  now  finally  forces  itself  upon  us  after 
we  have  considered  the  different  aspects  of  the 
problem.  Is  it  all  futurist  music,  dreams  and 
fancies  of  a  millennium  which,  perhaps,  will 
never  dawn? 

It  must  be  acknowledged  that  although  what 
lias  been  achieved  up  to  the  present  is  en- 
couraging and  perhaps  even  surprising,  the  real 
practical  results  in  the  meantime  do  not  amount 
to  much,  that  a  great  deal  remains  unsatis- 
factory, and  that  many  of  the  aims  and  means 
discussed  here  have  in  view  a  distant  future, 
which  need  not  perhaps  interest  us  very 
greatly. 

Is  it  really   necessary,   if   we   wish   to   see 

168 


REVIEW  169 

practical  results,  to  wait  for  universal  Free 
trade,  and  the  recognition  and  realization  of 
the  rights  of  peace  everywhere?  Or  can  we 
believe  and  hope  that  practical  results  will 
to  some  extent  appear  gradually  as  links  in 
a  chain  of  development,  before  these  condi- 
tions are  themselves  present,  or  at  least  fully 
present?  Can  we  hope  that  the  results  will 
appear  part  passu  with  the  conditions,  so  that 
conditions  and  results  may  develop  side  by  side? 

Or  is  there  even  a  third  possibility— a  possi- 
bility of  a  sudden  surprising  victory  for  the 
peace  movement,  of  such  a  nature  that  some 
fine  day  the  whole  purpose  of  the  peace  move- 
ment may  be  attained,  a  victory  surprising, 
overwhelming,  and  captivating  in  its  glory  and 
splendour  ? 

Alas  !  how  could  this  come  about?  And  yet 
let  us  exhaust  all  possibilities  and  all  points 
of  view  and  consider  this  last  question,  as  it  is 
not  quite  outside  all  reason  and  all  earthly 
possibilities. 

That  a  sudden,  surprising,  and  overwhelm- 
ing victory  for  the  peace  movement  will  dawn 
in  consequence  of  an  instant  or  quickened  moral 
improvement  of  the  human  race,  a  great  world 
awakening,  and  a  return  to  the  spiritual  con- 
dition of  the  first  Christian  congregation— that 
I,  at  any  rate,  am  not  sufficiently  optimistic 
to  believe. 


170        PACIFISM  AND   ITS  ADVERSARIES 

But  what  about  the  victory  of  the  peace 
movement  through  war,  through  that  contra- 
tfictio  in  adjecto  Where  the  peace  movement, 
sword  in  hand,  might  force  a  victory  and 
establish  all  that  we  have  wished  for  in  the 
preceding  pages? 

Can  we  not  imagine  a  sufficiently  great  and 
mighty  nation  or  group  of  nations  (e.g.  the 
Anglo-Saxon  nations,  cf.  Sir  Edward  Grey's 
speech  previously  quoted)  making!  themselves 
champions  of  the  peace  movement,  demanding 
its  fulfilment  by  other  nations,  compelling  the 
small  nations  through  fear  and  the  great 
nations  through  force,  striking!  down  all  oppo- 
sition, sword  in  hand  if  necessary,  and  then 
once  for  all  establishing  universal  peace? 
The  United  States  of  the  Earth,  compulsory 
arbitration  in  all  imaginable  cases  before  one 
and  the  same  permanent  court  of  judgment, 
an  international,  permanent  Congress  or  Parlia- 
ment with  an  adequate  executive  force,  universal 
Free  trade,  the  fulfilment  of  the  rights  of  peace, 
admission  for  all  to  the  Central  Court  with 
their  complaints,  etc.,  and  all  this  in  such  a 
way  that  this  nation,  or  group  of  nations,  of 
its  own  accord,  freely  and  generously  laid  down 
the  sceptre  and  placed  itself  in  the  same  position 
as  the  other  States  of  the  Union,  and  under  the 
same  conditions  as  these,  without  demanding 
any  prerogative  or  advantage  for  itself  beyond 


REVIEW  171 

the  glory  of  the  gratitude,  the  respect,  and 
the  admiration  which  would  crown  its 
head — is  such  a  thought  quite  senseless  and 
unreasonable? 

I  am  able  to  show  that  it  is  not,  because 
we  have  actually  seen  this  come  to  pass,  be- 
cause history  shows  us  an  example  of  it  in 
sufficiently  large  dimensions. 

The  example  is  an  Anglo-Saxon  one.  I  am 
thinking  of  England  and  of  the  United  States 
of  South  Africa.  Victorious  Britain  has,  by 
force  of  arms,  laid  the  South  African  States 
at  her  feet,  has  made  them  dependent  on  the 
mercy  of  the  conqueror.  She  has  then  used 
her  victory  for  the  realization  on  South  African 
territory  of  the  victory  of  the  cause  of  peace, 
for  the  establishment  of  South  Africa's  United 
States,  their  common,  permanent  Congress  and 
Court  of  Arbitration,  with  an  executive  force  as 
the  only  existing  force  in  arms,  with  a  common 
tariff  inside  the  whole  territory,  with  the  un- 
restricted, unquestioned  administration  of  the 
rights  of  peace,  with  equal  rights  and  equal 
opportunities  for  the  different  nations,  with- 
out any  preference  or  advantage  for  herself., 

Now,  in  the  above  sentence,  let  us  exchange 
the  name  of  England  for  that  of  some  imaginary 
Power,  or  for  a  coalition  of  several  Powers^ 
and  that  of  South  Africa  for  Europe.  The 
sentence  will  then  read  like  this :— 


172        PACIFISM  AND   ITS  ADVEESARIES 

A  victorious  Power  has,  by  force  of  arms, 
laid  the  European  States  at  its  feet,  has  made 
them  dependent  on  the  mercy  of  the  conqueror, 
and  it  has  used  its  victory  as  a  means  of 
realizing  on  European  soil  the  victory  of  the 
peace  movement,  of  establishing  the  United 
States  of  Europe,  their  common,  permanent 
Congress  and  Court  of  Arbitration  with  an  ex- 
ecutive force  as  the  sole  existing)  force  in  arms, 
with  common  tariffs  within  the  whole  territory, 
with  the  unrestricted,  unquestioned  administra- 
tion of  the  rights  of  peace,  with  equal  rights 
and  equal  opportunities  for  the  different 
nations,  without  any  preference  or  advantage 
for  itself. 

These  two  sentences  are  identical  except  for 
the  exchange  of  two  words.  Those  two  words 
make  this  difference,  that  while  the  one  event 
'has  happened,  has  actually  been  realized,  the 
other  is  considered  a  hopeless,  impossible,  and 
childish  phantasy. 

Why?  Is  it  impossible  or  unreasonable  to 
imagine  a  world-fire — a  general  European  war? 
Certainly  not,  for  such  a  war  has  taken  place 
time  after  time  in  the  past,  and  its  recurrence 
is  considered  probable  by  many  sensible  and 
thoughtful  men.  Is  it  impossible  or  unreason- 
able to  suppose  that  a  single  Power  or  one 
or  more  allied  Powers  might  come  out  of  such 
a  struggle  strong  enough  to  be  able  to  dictate 


REVIEW  173 

their  wishes  to  Europe?  Again,  certainly  not, 
if  we  'have  already  seen  this  or  something  ex- 
ceedingly like  it.  In  the  year  1807-8  the  sup- 
position we  are  imagining  might 'almost  in  truth 
have  been  attributed  to  Napoleon.  Is  it,  then, 
unreasonable  or  impossible  to  imagine  a 
conqueror  using  his  victory  in  the  manner 
we  have  indicated?  Surely  not,  since  history 
shows  us  an  example  of  it :  England's  action 
in  South  Africa. 

We  might  make  a  slight  editorial  change, 
and  instead  of  a  Power,  a  victorious  Power,  we 
might  substitute  a  Man.  For  it  is  often  just 
as  much  on  a  Man  as  on  a  State  that  everything 
depends.  A  new  Napoleon,  Who,  unlike  the 
old  one,  would  not  use  his  victory  for  self- 
glorification  and  self  -  aggrandizement,  who 
would  not,  like  the  old  one,  repulse  the  hearts 
of  men  and  waste  his  victory  and  his  might  by 
founding  his  rule  on  false  and  unstable  prin- 
ciples (on  arms,  on  fear,  on  admiration,  on  war- 
glory,  in  the  last  instance  on  himself,  instead 
of  on  justice,  equality,  liberty,  on  love  and 
veneration  for  the  ideal  he  serves — in  short, 
on  the  ideal  instead  of  on  himself),  an  altru- 
istic and  idealistic  Napoleon  instead  of  an 
egoistic  and  materialistic  one,  a  Gladstone - 
Napoleon,  if  we  can  place  these  two  names 
side  by  side. 

What  a  stretch  of  imagination  to  think  of 


Napoleon  doing,  in  1808,  what  the  British  did 
in  1908!     (And  what  an  anachronism!) 

Unfortunately,  it  is  difficult  to  become  a 
Napoleon  and  a  world  ruler  When  one  is  an 
altruist  and  an  idealist ;  far  easier,  and  perhaps 
only  When  one  is  an  egoist  and  a  materialist. 
And,  at  any  rate,  altruistic  Napoleons  cannot 
be  produced  to  order,  nor  can  we  in  any  way 
contribute  to  their  appearance. 

But,  further,  even  if  there  were  no  such 
precedent,  and  if  no  single  Power  or  individual 
had  attained  to  unquestioned  supremacy,  some 
such  ideal  as  has  been  referred  to  might  be 
imagined,  might  perhaps  be  even  more  easily 
imagined  (and  the  thought  of  it  might  be  even 
more  acceptable).  It  is  an  ideal  which  has 
been  conceived  and  put  forward  repeatedly  by 
people  whose  words  are  listened  to,  and  who 
have  a  certain  claim  to  be  heard. 

At  the  National  Arbitration  and  Peace  Con- 
ference in  New  York,  in  1907,  Mr.  Andrew 
Carnegie  proposed  that  the  Powers  friendly  to 
peace  should  lay  moral,  economic,  and,  if 
necessary,  military  pressure  on  every  State 
which  intended  to  break  the  peace.  The  neutral 
States  should  form  a  fear -inspiring  coalition 
against  the  disturbers  of  the  peace.  "  But 
before  using  force,  it  will  be  best  to  begin 
by  proclaiming  the  cessation  of  all  relations 
with  the  peace -breaking  State.  No  exchange 


REVIEW  175 

of  products,  no  loans,  no  importations  of  a 
military  or  naval  kind,  no  postal  service — these 
precautions  should  serve  as  a  solemn  warning 
and  would  probably  prove  effective." 

Precisely  the  same  idea  was  promulgated 
three  months  later  by  ex-President  Roosevelt 
in  his  Christiania  speech : — 

"  Finally,  it  would  be  a  master  stroke  if! 
those  Great  Powers  that  wish  honestly  for  peace 
would  form  a  peace  league,  not  only  to  main- 
tain mutual  peace,  but  also  to  prevent,  if  neces- 
sary by  force,  a  breach  of  the  peace  on  the 
part  of  other  States.  The  greatest  difficulty 
in  the  further  development  of  the  peace  move- 
ment at  The  Hague  lies  in  the  complete  want 
of  an  executive  or  police  force  Which  can  carry 
out  the  verdicts  of  the  court." 

Further,  we  have  seen  the  same  thought  ad- 
vanced in  the  House  of  Commons  by  the 
Minister  for  Foreign  Affairs,  Sir  Edward  Grey, 
in  discussing  the  Taft  Arbitration  Treaty 
between  Britain  and  the  United  States.  In 
the  English  Press  it  was  also  declared,  in  this 
connection,  that  "  war  will  become  an  impos- 
sibility when  the  English-speaking  peoples  all 
over  the  world  are  against  war."  This  is 
expressing  in  other  words  the  idea  of  an  Anglo- 
Saxon  peace  league,  which  should  mean,  not 
only  unconditional  peace  among  all  Anglo- 
Saxons,  but  also  that  the  Anglo-Saxon  sword 


176        PACIFISM  AND   ITS  ADVERSAEIES 

should  be  put  in  the  balance  in  favour  of  peace 
against  every  breaker  of  peace.  The  Anglo- 
Saxons  would  say  to  the  world,  "  We  will  have 
peace,  and  we  do  not  allow  any  one  to  break  it." 

If  only  this  could  be  so  !  How  all  the  small 
States,  whose  lives  are  hanging  by  a  thread, 
must  greet  such  a  thought  as  a  gospel,  wel- 
come it  with  tears  in  their  voices,  and,  as  far 
as  their  weak  strength  goes,  give  it  all  the 
assistance  in  their  power  ! 

It  is  assumed,  of  course,  that  the  Anglo- 
Saxons  want,  not  only  peace  but  a  just  peace  ! 
It  is  assumed  that  such  a  coalition  is  not 
to  be  a  "pot  in:  which  to  boil  small  States  " 
but  a  protection  and  guard  for  them.  For 
peace  is  (worth  nothing  without  the  rights  of 
peace,  and  the  coalition  must  not  regard 
its  task  done  by  securing  peace,  but  must 
add  to  this  the  duty  of  securing  respect  for 
the  rights  of  peace — that  is,  for  economic, 
national,  religious,  political,  and  civic  liberty 
within  the  nations  and  between  the  nations. 

I  see  no  reason  to  doubt  the  possibility  and 
the  realization  of  this.  It  is  not  nearly  so 
much  a  question  of  power  as  of  will.  When 
this  movement  will  attain  its  full  develop- 
ment and  begin  to  bear  fruit  is  another  matter. 
This  depends  upon  the  amount  of  the  inter- 
vening spade-work  and  upon  the  energy  and 
enthusiasm  of  the  propaganda  of  the  pacifists. 


REVIEW  177 

And  let  us  add  that  it  is  desirable  that  the 
movement  should  not  emanate  solely  from  the 
Anglo-Saxons— who  cannot  carry  it  to  a  suc- 
cessful issue  by  themselves,  and  who  ought  not 
to  have  the  monopoly  of  the  Pacifist  movement 
and  of  working  for  its  success.  But  there  is 
no  reason  to  fear  that  this  will  be  the  case* 
It  is  not  unreasonable  to  suppose  that  the 
Pacifist  movement  has  taken  equally  firm  root 
in  other  nations  (e.g.  in  Russia),  not  only  in 
Government  circles,  at  any  rate  in  certain 
Government  circles,  including  that  from  which 
the  conception  of  the  Hague  Conference 
emanated,  but  also  within  the  wide  confines  of 
the  great  Russian  nation  as  a  whole.  It  is  by 
no  means  certain  that  the  Anglo-Saxons  may 
not  find  competitors — or,  let  us  rather  say, 
co-operators— in  this  work. 

But  whoever  the  members  of  this  coalition 
are,  it  is  in  any,  case  desirable  and  morally, 
essential  that  the  coalition  shall  not  act  on  its 
own  initiative  and  responsibility  for  longer 
than  is  absolutely  necessary,  but  that  it  shall 
as  quickly,  as  possible  receive  the  sanction 
of  the  court  of  nations,  so  that  its  activities 
may  be  regulated  by,  fixed  legal  procedure 
which  will  preclude  any  kind  of  suspicion  of 
personal  aims.  For  such  a  league  of  peace 
could  only,  be  called  a  "  master  piece "  if 
its  aims  were  in  the  interest  of  the  people 

12 


178        PACIFISM  AND   ITS  ADVERSARIES 

as  a  whole,  and  if  it  kept  itself  free  from' 
all  taint  of  personal  ambition,  and  provided 
that  it  did  not  act  in  such  a  way  as  to 
receive,  or  even  show  a  desire  to  receive, 
any  special  advantage  for  its  members  or 
any  favours  for  any  individual  nation.  And 
further,  such  a  league  of  peace  would  be 
expected  and  required  to  be  organized  on 
as  wide  as  possible  a  basis  so  as  to  pro- 
vide for  the  admission  of  every  State  which 
was  willing  to  enter  it.  The  greater  and 
stronger  the  coalition  became  the  more  easily, 
could  it  carry  out  its  programme. 

If  these  conditions  were  fulfilled  a  way 
would  be  prepared  for  a  solution  of  the 
pacifist  question — a  way  which  would  be 
practicable  and  which  we  should  welcome 
with  all  our  hearts.  For  the  moment  interest 
in  this  question  has  waned  somewhat.  But 
it  is  bound  to  come  to  the  front  again.  .When 
a  question  of  this  kind  has  once  been  raised, 
it  claims  attention  again  and  again  until  it 
has  been  solved.  And  it  is  not  to  be  expected 
that  it  should  be  solved  at  its  first  appearance. 

In  the  meantime  we  can  only  point  to  the 
conditions  of  its  solution,  to  the  factors  which 
the  solution  must  contain  if  it  is  to  be  of  lasting 
value.  And  as  that  which  is  presented  in  the 
form  of  an  object-lesson  impresses  itself  more 
firmly  oil  the  mind  of  the  reader,  we  cannot 


REVIEW  179 

resist  the  temptation  to  submit  a  draft  of  this 
ideal  treaty  which  should  form  the  basis  of 
the  proposed  League  of  Peace.  The  scheme 
may  seem  far-fetched  aftd  Utopian,  and  to 
many  readers  somewhat  simple  and  ingenuous. 
However,  here  it  is  : — 

THE  LEAGUE  OF  PEACE  TREATY 

WHEREAS  His  Majesty  the  King  of  Great 
Britain  and  Ireland  and  Emperor  of  India, 
the  President  of  the  United  States,  the 
President  of  the  French  Republic,  His  Majesty, 
the  King  of  Belgium,  Her  Majesty  the  Queen  of 
Holland,  the  Regents  of  Denmark,  Norway  and 
Sweden,  Switzerland,  Italy,  Spain,  Portugal, 
Brazil,  Argentina,  Chile,  Peru,  Siam,  etc.,  have 
the  intention  in  the  spirit  of  mutual  goodwill 
and  understanding  to  maintain  the  most 
favourable  conditions  for  securing  peace  among 
their  peoples  and  as  far  as  possible  all 
over  the  (whole  world  ;  and  .WHEREAS  they, 
recognize  that  peace  ca'n  only  be  founded  on 
justice  and  that  its  basis  must  be  economic, 
national,  and  educational  equality  and  liberty, 
and  respect  for  each  person  and  each  nation, 
as  natural  rights  due  to  them,  THEREFORE 
they  have,  in  agreement  with  the  Royal  and 
Imperial  British  Government  and  with  the 
Government  of  the  United  States,  resolved 


180        PACIFISM  AND   ITS  ADVERSARIES 

to  convene  a  Conference  at  The  Hague,  and 
they  have  nominated  as  their  representatives 
the  following :  *  *  *  * 

who,  being  provided  with  plenary  powers  in 
good  and  proper  form,  have  considered  and 
passed  the  following  resolutions : — 

§  1.  The  States  which  have  signed  this  agree- 
ment shall  enjoy  absolute  Free  trade  in  relation 
to  each  other.  Not  only  can  none  of  the  States 
mentioned  levy  an  import  duty  on  goods  from 
other  competing  States  without  at  the  same 
time  levying  the  same  tax  on  the  same  goods 
produced  within  the  country,  but  neither  shall 
their  own  goods  be  favoured  through  export 
bounties,  shipping  subventions,  reduction  of 
freights,  or  the  like.  The  contracting  States 
undertake  before  the  end  of  the  year  *  *  * 
to  carry  out  the  necessary  legislative  changes 
to  secure  this. 

§  2.  Within  the  boundaries  of  each  of  the 
contracting  States,  all  subjects,  without  regard 
to  nationality  or  faith,  shall  be  equal  and 
shall  enjoy  in  the  fullest  measure  free  and 
unrestricted  use  of  their  mother  tongue  in 
the  school,  the  church,  and  the  law-courts, 
at  public  meetings  and  in  the  press,  perfect 
freedom  of  association  and  of  the  press,  so 
that  each  council  or  community  in  town 
or  country  shall  have  preachers,  teachers, 
judges,  and  officials  of  the  nationality  to  which 


REVIEW  181 

the  majority  of  the  population  belongs,  private 
schools  and  Free  Churches  shall  enjoy  perfect 
liberty,  the  rights  of  property  shall  be  inviol- 
able, the  avenues  to  emolument,  possession,  and 
settlement  shall  'be  the  same  for  all  and 
not  be  obstructed  by  the  decisions  of  officials, 
and  laws  of  exception,  open  and  secret,  shall 
not  be  tolerated. 

§  3.  The  contracting  States  shall  at  every 
opportunity  use  their  influence  to  establish  the 
validity  of  the  principles  stated  in  §  1  and  §  2. 
The  Powers  which  have  not  signed  the  present 
general  treaty  may  be  admitted  to  its  delibera- 
tions by  a  special  Act  as  explained  in  §  4 
following.  The  admission  of  each  new  Power 
shall  be  brought  to  the  knowledge  of  the  Inter- 
national Congress  through  diplomatic  means 
and  by  the  Congress  again  to  the  knowledge 
of  all  the  States  who  have  signed  this  general 
treaty  or  who  have  later  come  under  it. 
This  admission  involves  the  full  and  com- 
plete acceptance  of  all  the  responsibilities  and 
the  enjoyment  of  all  the  privileges  which  are 
specified  in  the  present  general  Act. 

§  4.  The  contracting  Powers  shall  establish 
in  common  an  International  Congress  to 
which  they  will  send  delegates  chosen  by  the 
Crown  in  proportion  to.  the  number  of  their 
inhabitants  (including  those  of  their  colonies 
and  dependencies),  yet  in  such  u  way  that 


182        PACIFISM  AND  ITS  ADVERSARIES 

each  sovereign  State  elects  first  one  representa- 
tive and  then  one  more  for  every  three  million 
inhabitants  which  it  through  an  official  census 
can  be  proved  to  possess,  while  the  colonies 
and  dependencies  shall  be  represented  by  one 
representative  for  every  three  million  inhabi- 
tants of  white  race  and  by  one  representative 
for  every,  five  million  of  other  races,  excluding 
illiterates  however.  The  order  of  business  of 
the  Conference  and  its  powers  shall  be  fixed 
by  a  special  Act.  It  shall  meet  at  least 
every  second  year  on  March  1st  and  at  The 
Hague,  and  ishall  remain  in  session  until  by 
a  simple  majority  it  decides  to  dissolve. 
Proposals  may  be  submitted  to  the  Conference 
for  approval  provided  these  are  supported  by 
at  least  twenty  members  representing  at  least 
three  States.  The  Congress  shall  have  power 
to  pass  resolutions  affecting  either  the  contract- 
ing States  or  outside  States  and  their  home 
or  foreign  circumstances  and  relations  (e.g. 
complaints  regarding  the  non -realization  of  the 
principles  formulated  in  §  1  and  §  2,  proposals 
for  the  changing  of  frontiers,  etc.),  subject  to 
the  provision  that  such  resolutions  are  sup- 
ported by  three-fourths  of  the  votes  recorded, 
representing  at  least  two -thirds  of  the  con- 
tracting Powers  at  any  given  time. 

§  5.  The  contracting  Powers  shall  mutually 
hold  themselves  bound  to  take  action  against 


REVIEW  183 

any  breach  of  the  peace,  even  by  or  between 
the  outside  Powers,  and  to  prevent  or  suppress 
this  by  every  means  in  their  power,  in  the  last 
resort  by  force  of  arms.  The  contracting 
parties  shall  bind  themselves  to  enforce  by 
every  means  in  their  power,  in  the  last  resort 
by  force  of  arms,  the  resolutions  passed  by  a 
legal  majority  in  the  international  Congress. 

§  6.  The  armed  force  required  for  this  pur- 
pose shall  be  placed  at  the  disposal  of  the  Con- 
gress by  the  contracting  Powers  as  explained 
in  §  4.  The  Congress  shall  fix  in  each  indi- 
vidual case  the  contribution  of  each  individual 
State  in  military  personnel,  material,  or  money, 
and  shall  fill  the  posts  of  command  in  the 
international  executive  force  thus  established, 
appoint  its  Field-Marshal  and  give  him  his 
orders.  All  arrangements  relative  to  these 
matters  shall  be  determined  by  a  special  Act 
before  the  end  of  the  first  session  of  Congress. 
§  7.  There  shall  further  be  placed  at  the 
disposal  of  the  Congress  a  standing  executive 
power  in  instant  readiness,  and  the  expense 
of  maintaining  this  force  shall  be  met  in 
the  following  manner : — 

All  the  contracting  Powers  shall  agree 
that  any  contracting  State  which  desires 
to  do  so  may  adopt  total  demobilization 
within  its  own  borders,  provided  that  it 
pays  each  year  to  the  Congress  a  sum  fixed 


184        PACIFISM  AND  ITS  ADVERSARIES 

each   year  by  the   Congress,   which   sum 
shall,  as  nearly  as  possible,  be  equal  to 
the  half  of  the  amount  considered  adequate 
in  respect  of  its  military  expenses  by  the 
Congress  at  the  time,  and  shall  not  exceed 
the    half   of   the    amount    per    individual 
expended  by  any  of  the  contracting  Powers 
which  have  not  been  demobilized. 
If  the  amount  raised  in  this  way  is  found  to 
be  insufficient,  the  Congress  shall  by  a  qualified 
majority  of  three-fourths  of  the  votes  recorded, 
representing    at   least  two -thirds   of   the   con- 
tracting   Powers,    raise    the    necessary    funds 
by    taxing    the    contracting    States    according 
to    their    population.      On    the    other    hand, 
all    the    contracting    parties    shall    mutually, 
guarantee    the    integrity    and    sovereign    inde- 
pendence of  the  demobilized  States  and  shall 
undertake  to  provide  instant  armed  assistance 
if  they  should  be  attacked  by  any  other  Power. 
The  council,  composition,  command,  etc.,  of  this 
executive  Power  shall  be  decided  by  a  special 
Act  before  the  end  of  the  first  session  of  the 
Congress. 

All  this  must  be  assumed  as  a  foundation, 
and  it  will  serve  no  useful  purpose  to  begin 
with  much  less  than  this  if  progress  is  to  be 
made.  Pessimists  may  perhaps  object  that 
at  that  rate  a  beginning  will  never  be  made 


REVIEW  185 

at  all.  But  as  we  are  trying  to  be  optimists 
we  shall  not  listen  to  them.  We  will  main- 
tain that  this  "  ideal  treaty  "—although  for 
the  present  and  for  an  incalculable  future 
(incalculably  remote  or  incalculably  near) 
it  may  quite  possibly  be  described  as  Utopian- 
has  nevertheless  a  claim  on  the  consciences 
of  the  nations,  and  that,  accordingly,  it  will 
force  its  way  to  recognition  with  the  same 
might  as  the  religious  appeal  as  soon  as 
it  is  put  clearly  before  men's  eyes.  If  we 
believe  in  the  future  of  that  appeal  and 
in  its  power  to  break  a  way  for  itself  in 
the  form  of  practical  results,  then  we  must 
exercise  this  belief  also  in  relation  to  this 
claim.  If  we  have  no  faith  of  that  kind, 
then  we  must  agree  that  (everything  will 
remain  as  of  old,  or  rather,  if  we  are 
logical  and  consistent,  we  must  come  to  the 
conclusion  that  the  development  of  the  world 
will  go  backwards  and  lead  us  into  greater  and 
greater  barbarism,  and  make  the  fight  of  all 
against  all  the  ruling  law  in  human  life  as  it  is 
in  a  measure  in  Nature  !  Forwards  or  back- 
wards !  The  one  or  the  other  !  There  is  no 
standing  still. 

Let  us,  then,  in  conclusion  endeavour— even 
if  we  perhaps  cannot  be  said  to  stand  on 
the  summit  of  Mount  Pisgah— to  cast  a  glance 


186        PACIFISM  AND   ITS  ADVERSARIES 

into  the  Promised  Land,  and  see  how  the  effects 
of  the  victory  of  the  pacifist  cause  would 
manifest  themselves,  what  the  significance  and 
the  consequences  of  this  would  be,  especially 
for  us  Europeans. 

First  and  foremost  there  would  be  a  vast 
and  overwhelming  sense  of  relief  and  of 
deliverance,  as  a  multitude  of  burdens  would 
fall  from  the  over-taxed  and  over-burdened 
back  of  old  Europe. 

Consider,  first,  the  burden  of  national  wars 
and  of  (national  hatreds.  Think  what  it 
would  mean  to  bring  about  a  cessation  of 
the  furious  hatred  and  of  the  raging  anger, 
of  the  pent-up  explosive  indignation  which 
now  rule  within  the  minds  of  millions  of 
the  people  of  Europe  against  other  European 
people.  I  am  not  sure  that  those  of  the 
ruling  classes,  those  who  are  at  the  top, 
fully  understand  the  nature,  the  extent,  and 
the  strength  of  this  hatred,  this  bitterness 
and  anger.  If  they  did  they,  would  tremble. 
To  understand  it  quite,  it  is  necessary,  per- 
haps, to  belong  one's  self  to  one  of  the 
oppressed  nations  or  to  a  nation  which  has 
compatriots  under  foreign  rule.  Only  then 
does  one  quite  feel  the  sting  of  the  follow- 
ing questions  :  What  right  have  those  strangers 
to  rule  over  us?  By  what  right  have  their 
political  agents  become  our  school  -  teachers, 


REVIEW  187 

their  national  agitators  our  priests,  their 
chauvinistic  incendiaries  and  propagandists  our 
judges  and  magistrates,  their  gendarmes  and 
policemen  our  uninvited  guests  at  our  meet- 
ings and  assemblies,  even  at  our  weddings 
and  festivities?  But  it  appears  to  me  that 
the  ruling  classes  also  (even  if  they  Will  not 
admit  that  there  is  no  possible  shadow  of  justifi- 
cation for  this  kind  of  treatment)  must  be 
able  to  see  what  an  enormous  advantage, 
for  example,  the  United  States  of  America 
or  of  South  Africa  have  over  Europe  in  this 
respect,  and  how  this  advantage  helps  to 
place  those  new  countries  in  a  much  more 
favourable  position  in  the  world,  and  how 
much  strength  Europe  is  wasting  to  no 
purpose  in  this  ruinous  inner  process  of  mutual 
antagonism'. 

Secondly,  there  is  the  economic  burden  of 
military  armaments.  As  we  have  said  before, 
it  can  be  borne,  seeing  that  it  is  borne ; 
it  is  not  intolerable,  as  it  is  tolerated  and 
that  even  voluntarily.  But  it  would  be  folly 
to  deny  that  it  is  heavy,  and  that  the  expendi- 
ture of  a  thousand  millions  annually  for  a 
nation  of  half  a  hundred  million  people  is 
an  exceedingly  noticeable  outlay,  and  that 
such  a  sum  released,  entirely  or  partially, 
for  peaceful  educational  purposes  would  pro- 
duce very  noticeable  effects,  as  it  would  also  if 


188        PACIFISM  AND   ITS  ADVERSARIES 

applied  to  the  solution  of  social  questions. 
How  many  social  reforms  of  glorious  promise 
are  deferred  or  abandoned  in  every  country, 
wherever  yoiu  look  around  you,  for  want  of 
money — money  which  would  be  forthcoming  in 
plenty  the  moment  the  pacifist  movement 
became  victorious. 

It  will  have  appeared  clearly  from  the  views 
indicated  above  that  I  do  not  sympathize  with 
those  who,  in  season  and  out  of  season,  run 
down  military  expenditure.  I  belong  to  those 
in  my  own  country  who  at  present  wish  this 
expenditure  increased,  and  I  have  advocated 
this  in  public.  But,  just  as  one  can  be  in 
principle  an  enthusiastic  adherent  of  universal 
Free  trade,  and  yet  be  a  zealous  Protectionist 
at  home  in  one's  own  land,  under  present 
circumstances,  because  of  sad  necessity,  so  can 
one  be  a  zealous  advocate  of  Home  Defence 
at  home  in  one's  own  land,  because  one  sees 
the  sad  necessity  for  it,  and  yet  heave  a  silent 
sigh  for  the  time  when  all  that  gold  which 
is  now  being  swallowed  up  by  military  ex- 
penditure shall  flow  out  as  a  fertilizing  stream 
over  all  other  departments  of  human  life.  This, 
before  all  others,  is  the  first  step  which  can 
bring  Europe— the  Old  World— on  to  an  equ;al 
footing  with  the  New. 

Thirdly,  the  victory  of  the  Pacifist  move- 
ment would  be  felt  as  a  vast  relief  and  libera- 


REVIEW  189 

tion  in  all  that  pertains  to  education — for  many, 
nations  at  any  rate.  Think  only  how  much 
energy  would  be  released,  which  is  now  wasted 
in  Nationalist  conflicts,  not  only  by  the 
oppressed  nation,  but  also  by  the  ruling  one. 
What  an  enormous  hindrance  national  antago- 
nisms and  national  hatreds  inflict  on  the 
national  school  by  means  of  these  controversies  ! 

With  the  victory  of  the  Pacifist  cause  the 
millennium  would  not  have  come.  There  will 
still  be  plenty  of  evil  and  misfortune  left  in 
the  world.  As  long  as  human  passions  exist 
there  will  be  hatred,  cheating,  murder  and 
immorality,  drunkenness,  poverty,  etc.,  on 
earth.  All  this  is  eternal,  and  not  to  be  done 
away  with  so  long  as  perfection  has  not  been 
reached.  But  all  moral  efforts  must  aim  at 
limiting  these  evils,  at  restraining  them  and 
keeping  them  in  subjection. 

In  these  efforts  the  labour  for  the  cause  of 
peace  is  a  link,  and  a  most  important  link, 
because  the  effects  of  its  victory  would  be  mani- 
fold, and  because  it  is  a  practical  aim  which 
differs  from  many  other  practical  moral  aims 
in  this,  that  according  to  our  belief  it  can  be 
fully  realized. 

Hatred  between  men  will  never  quite  dis- 
appear, but  we  believe  that  hatred  between 
nations  can  disappear,  because  we  have  seen 
this  happen  in  South  Africa,  in  North  Americaa 


190        PACIFISM  AND   ITS  ADVERSARIES 

and  also  in  Europe.  The  condition  is  only 
that  every  one  should  get  his  natural  rights. 
Murder  and  killing  will  never  quite  disappear, 
but  we  believe  that  war  for  all  that  may  quite 
well  disappear,  at  any  rate  among  civilized 
States.  The  economic  battle  between  indi- 
viduals will,  perhaps,  never  cease,  but  for  all 
that  it  may  quite  well  cease  between  States. 
And  the  victory  of  the  Pacifist  cause  would 
for  the  individuals,  too,  be  a  step  towards  the 
victory  of  good  over  evil.  It  would  have 
blessed  effects  upon  poverty,  it  would  make 
neighbourly  love  to  increase,  and  it  would  re- 
press hatred  among  men.  The  blessings  of 
culture,  national,  economic,  and  social,  would 
follow  in  its  footsteps. 


CHAPTER    VI 

EPILOGUE 
PACIFIST    PROPOSALS.    I 

As  an  explanation  of  §  7  in  the  preceding  League  of 
Peace  Treaty,  I  venture  to  lay  before  an  English  public 
the  proposals  regarding  it  which  are  contained  in  my 
book.  I  am  quite  aware  that  these  can  only  be  of  real 
interest  to  the  circle  of  pacifists  proper,  and  that  by  many 
they  will  be  considered  phantasies. 

IF  this  *  be  regarded  as  a  solution  of  the 
problem  of  an  Executive  Power  on  which  the 
Great  Powers  especially  should  be  represented, 
and  which  might  possibly  be  thought  of  as  a 
thing  that  could  be  called  into  being  in  the 
near  future,  there  follows  next  the  solution  from 
the  point  of  view  of  the  small  States,  a  kind 
of  solution  or  preparation  for  a  solution  which 
is  perhaps  capable  of  being  even  more  easily 
realized,  and  realized  also  within  a  future  even 
less  remote.  It  has  the  advantage,  besides,  of 
not  only  representing  the  beginnings  of  an 
Executive  Power  under  peaceful  but  perfectly 
effective  conditions,  but  also  of  providing  a  kind 

1  The  preceding  pages  which  are  not  given  here. 
101 


192        PACIFISM  AND   ITS  ADVERSARIES 

of  a  solution  of  the  question  of  disarmament, 
and  of  making  a  real  disarmament  possible 
for  those  who  want  it ;  and  these  are  in  the 
meantime  and  in  the  main  probably  the  small 
States  only.1 

This  is  the  matter  to  which  we  referred 
on  p.  183).  The  proposal  was  this,  that  the 
small  States  should  apply  to  the  Hague  Con- 
ference for  an  international  consent  to  their 
disarmament,  and  for  an  assurance  that  the 
rest  of  the  States  represented  at  the  Hague 
Conference  would  in  common  guarantee  their 
existence  and  their  neutrality,  while  they  on 
their  part  should  bind  themselves  to  refer  for 
settlement  all  questions  in  dispute  to  inter- 
national arbitration,  and  to  contribute  annually 
a  proportionate  sum  for  the  maintenance  of 
an  international  executive  Power,  or  in  the 
meantime  for  some  other  international  purpose 
(which  we  shall  detail  below). 

This  contribution  should,  of  course,  be  with- 
held the  moment  any  State  used  armed  force 
against  a  State  which  had  disarmed,  and  when 
this  had  not  been  prevented  by  the  other 
Powers.  And  it  should  not  be  renewed  until 

1  We  should  remember  that  in  certain  small  States 
there  has  for  many  years  been  a  rather  strong  and,  in  my 
view,  a  foolish  and  childish  movement  in  favour  of 
disarmament  based  on  the  conviction  of  th«  total  hop«- 
lessnesi  of  military  defence. 


EPILOGUE  193 

a  status  quo  had  been  re-established.  To  this 
might  perhaps  be  added  a  neutralization  under 
collective  guarantee  by  all  the  other  Powers 
of  the  disarmed  State  or  States.  Only  under 
such  a  guarantee  would  neutralization  become 
effective  enough  to  permit  of  disarmament,  and 
reassuring  enough  to  afford  security.1 

At  first  sight  this  might  appear  too  simple 
and  Utopian  a  proposal ;  but  I  believe  that 
further  consideration  of  it  will  secure  more 
favourable  acceptance.  The  amount  of  the  con- 
tribution should,  for  a  certain  number  of  years, 
be  fixed  by  the  Hague  Conference  or  by  the 
International  Congress  that  is  to  be,  and  the 
other  united  Powers  should  bind  themselves 
never  under  any  circumstances  to  use  armed 

1  The  thought  of  neutralization  is  discussed  by  Hilty 
("  Polit.  Jahrbuch  d.  Schweitz.  Eidgenossenschaften," 
book  8,  p.  245).  He  proposes  to  augment  the  number  of 
neutral  States,  and  to  bring  about  an  alliance  between 
them.  Bajer  proposes  the  same  thing  in  "  Neutralite 
foederative"  in  Revue  de  droit  International,  1902, 
p.  127.  Nippold  (I.e.  p.  596)  finds  the  suggestion  worthy 
of  note,  and  thinks  that  therein  would  undoubtedly  lie 
a  further  guarantee  for  the  application  of  international 
legal  procedure.  According  to  Schliep  (I.e.  p.  132) 
a  development  of  this  international  law-court,  in  terms 
of  which  the  existence  of  each  State  should  be  guaranteed 
by  the  Great  Powers,  appears  to  be  quite  practicable  :  "  The 
position  of  the  neutral  States  in  relation  to  the  inter- 
national law-court  might  be  regarded  as  a  rough  sketch 
outlining  what  the  European  State  system  might  become." 

13 


194        PACIFISM  AND   ITS  ADVERSARIES 

force  against  the  disarmed  States,  but  to  refer 
all  possible  cases  of  dissension  for  decision 
to  the  Hague  Court  of  Arbitration. 

The  other  States  which  had  not  disarmed 
could  not  refuse  their  assent  to  this  proposal 
on  the  plea  that  certain  causes  of  strife  were 
"  vital,"  inasmuch  as  they  affected  their 
sovereign  rights,  their  integrity  or  their 
national  honour,  since  a  disarmed  State  could 
hardly  be  found  guilty  of  such  offences  against 
an  armed  State. 

I  hasten  to  add  that  as  I  consider  the  pro- 
posal to  establish  an  Executive  to  be  impractic- 
able at  present,  as  unanimity  for  that  purpose 
could  not  yet  be  secured  at  a  Hague  Conference, 
the  sums  contributed  should  in  the  meantime 
be  applied,  according  to  the  direction  of  the 
Hague  Conference,  to  one  or  other  of  the  inter- 
national purposes  which  are  now  being  carried 
out  by  contributions  from  a  number  of  in- 
terested Powers — for  instance,  for  international 
hydrographic  research,  for  the  expenses  of  the 
Hague  Conference,  or  eventually  for  inter- 
national lighthouses  or  telegraphs,  for  inter- 
national North  or  South  Pole  expeditions,  etc. 

If  it  could  be  arranged  that  the  contribu- 
tions were  to  be  used  for  the  purposes  of  an 
international  Executive  Power,  its  influence 
would  perhaps  gradually  increase  as  more  and 
more  States  disarmed,  and  it  would,  it  might 


EPILOGUE  195 

be  hoped,  quickly  become  so  powerful  that 
every  disturber  of  the  peace  would  have  to 
reckon  with  it  as  an  opponent  in  addition  to 
his  original  antagonist. 

It  is,  however,  not  sufficient  for  an  idea  to 
be  merely  beautiful.  It  must  also  be  practic- 
able, it  must  be  rooted  in  reality  and  not  in 
the  dreams  of  Utopia.  Let  us  not  be  content 
to  become  enamoured  of  its  attractive  appear- 
ance, but  let  us  examine  it  closely  from  all 
sides,  and  see  what  objections  can  be  raised 
against  it,  and  how  to  refute  them. 

From  the  side  of  the  small  States  the  ques- 
tion may  first  of  all  be  raised  whether  such 
an  international  guarantee  would  have  any, 
value  and  importance,  and  if  it  really  could 
be  considered  as  affording  sufficient  protection 
for  their  existence  and  their  independence.  It 
is  generally  recognized,  for  example,  that  the 
guaranteed  neutrality  of  Switzerland  does  not 
permit  Switzerland  to  disarm,  but  that  that 
country,  in  spite  of  its  neutrality,  has  to  bear 
the  same  military  burdens  as  others,  and  must 
be  prepared  to  defend  its  existence  and  its 
neutrality,  just  as  if  its  neutrality  had  never 
been  guaranteed,  evil  tongues  might  add.1 
(Pessimists  might  further  point  to  the  free 

1  Wrongly,  as  the  guaranteed  neutrality  is,  neverthe- 
less, of  value  to  Switzerland — how  much  or  how  little 
we  shall  not  here  discuss. 


196        PACIFISM  AND   ITS  ADVERSARIES 

State  of  Cracow ;  its  existence  and  integrity 
were  guaranteed  by,  three  Great  Powers,  hut 
some  sixteen  years  later  it  was,  in  spite 
of  this,  annexed  by  one  of  the  guarantors, 
without  intervention  from  any,  of  the  other 
Powers . ) 

To  this  might  be  replied  that  there  would 
probably  be  much  better  protection  and  far 
greater  security  in  a  guarantee  under  the  above 
conditions.  In  the  first  place  these  conditions 
include  a  formal  consent  to  disarmament  from 
the  other  Powers,  and  a  formal  obligation  under 
no  circumstances  Whatsoever  to  use  arms 
against  a  disarmed  State.  Secondly,  something 
is  contributed  by  the  disarmed  State  in  return 
for  the  peace  guarantee ;  and,  thirdly  and 
mainly,  a  transgression  would  immediately, 
bring  the  disturber  of  the  peace  into  difficulties 
and  diplomatic  trouble  with  all  the  Powers  on 
account  of  the  cessation  of  the  money  contri- 
bution. 

But  some  may  perhaps  object  that  even  if 
the  existence  of  the  disarmed  State  might  be 
regarded  as  secure,  still  its  independence  would 
suffer.  It  would  not  be  able  to  maintain  its 
free  rigdit  of  self-determination  in  foreign 
affairs.  Its  sovereignty  would  perhaps  be 
recognized,  but  in  reality  it  would  be  depen- 
dent on  its  great  neighbour,  and  it  would  sink 
into  the  position  of  an  annexed  and  vassal 


EPILOGUE  197 

State,  and  its  inner  national  life,  its  self -con- 
sciousness, its  culture  would  suffer.  This  has 
been  clearly  pointed  out  by  Harald  Nielsen 
on  page  148  of  his  pamphlet. 

Personally  I  do  not  hold  this  view.  The 
large  State  would  be  practically  powerless  under 
such  circumstances.  It  would  have  no  means 
of  exercising  pressure,  for  every  dispute  would 
at  once  be  referred  by  the  small  State  to  the 
Hague  Conference,  and  any  aggression  on  the 
part  of  the  large  State  would  at  once  cause 
international  complications,  both  political  and 
economic,  as  attacks  on  the  independence  of 
a  small  State  would  involve  the  cessation  of 
its  contribution  to  the  international  fund,  and 
an  illegal  loss  of  income  for  all  the  other  States. 
If,  for  instance,  we  supposed  that  the  fund 
were  used  in  the  meantime  for  the  support  of 
international  hydrographic  research  (whereby 
the  contributions  paid  at  present  by  certain 
States  would  have  ceased),  then  an  attack  on 
such  a  disarmed  State  would  carry  with  it  the 
very  noticeable  practical  result  that  Russian, 
English,  French,  and  American  research  in  this 
field  would  have  to  cease  its  operations  owing 
to  the  cessation  of  its  subsidy.  And  the 
tendency  to  such  aggression  would  undoubtedly 
find  a  check  in  the  fact  that  it  would  neces- 
sarily be  followed  by  a  long  series  of  protests 
from  other  States,  and  would  give  each  of  these 


a   formal   right  to   intervene,   and   to  set  the 
Hague  Arbitration  Court  at  once  in  motion. 

I  believe,  therefore,  that  disarmament  under 
the  above  outlined  conditions  would  afford,  not 
only  a  far  better  protection  than  disarmament 
undertaken  by  each  State  singly,  without  the 
approval  of  the  other  Powers,  and  without  any 
return  being  made,  but  perhaps  an  even  better 
security  than  that  of  a  purely  military  nature. 
This  would,  at  any  rate,  be  the  case  with  certain 
small  States  whose  military  powers  of  defence 
are  but  small,  and  whose  position  is  exposed, 
such  as  my  native  land,  Norway  and  Sweden,1 
and  perhaps  Holland  and  Belgium  also,2  and, 
later,  the  Balkan  States. 3  I  am  inclined  to 
consider  such  an  arrangement  better  than  the 

»  For  I  consider  the  position  of  these  States  to  be  very 
weak  in  the  event  of  an  advance  towards  the  Atlantic 
by  Russia,  for  instance. 

8  Would  not  Holland  and  Belgium  after  such  a  die- 
armament  be  in  fully  as  secure  possession  of  their 
colonies,  and  of  the  Congo  States  respectively,  as  they 
are  now  when  they  are  dependent  on  an  eventual 
military  defence  of  these  ? 

3  Later,  because  the  Balkan  States  naturally  must  await 
a  definitive  delimitation  of  territories  in  the  Balkans, 
especially  the  division  of  Macedonia.  Bulgaria,  for 
instance,  would  not  think  of  disarmament  in  the  manner 
sketched  above  before  her  border  had  been  pushed 
forward  to  the  ^Egean  Sea. 

Later  note. — The  Balkan  war  just  ended  has  affirmed 
these  words  and  made  them  superfluous. 


EPILOGUE  199 

status  quo  for  such  States,  because  it  would 
afford  them  greater  security.  Some  small 
economic  advantage — a  slightly  decreased  ex- 
penditure— ought  also  reasonably  to  be  attached 
to  it,  partly  as  a  small  premium  and  an 
encouragement,  partly  because  all  the  money 
would  go  out  of  the  country,  while  military 
expenditure  to  a  great  extent  is  spent  in  the 
country.  And,  finally,  it  would  give  the  nations 
in  question  a  fine  sense  of  contributing  in  a 
Very  high  degree  to  the  progress  and  the 
development  of  the  cause  of  peace. 

There  would,  at  any  rate,  be  a  very  big 
difference  between  a  disarmament  of  this 
kind,  carried  out  with  the  approval  and  under 
the  guarantee  of  Europe,  and  subject  to  the 
payment  of  a  corresponding  contribution  in 
money,  and  a  disarmament  undertaken  at  one's 
own  risk,  by  one's  own  hand,  and  to  the 
surprise  and  indignation  of  Europe  (and  to 
her  envy  also  on  account  of  the  economic 
advantages  it  might  bring).  In  the  first 
case,  the  disarming  Power  would  act  as  a 
pioneer  and  as  a.  shining  example  in  a  great 
movement  of  civilization,  encouraged  by  the 
sympathy  of  serious  and  right-thinking  people 
in  all  countries  ;  in  the  second  case,  it  would 
be  despised  'and  hated,  regarded  as  an  inter- 
national disturber  of  peace  and  an  anarchist, 
unlawfully  securing  profit  for  itself  as  against 


200        PACIFISM  AND   ITS  ADVERSARIES 

the  other  States,  a  menace  to  the  peace  of 
Europe  as  it  had  stepped  outside  the  bounds 
of  civilized  State  society;.  But  the  objection 
may  be  raised,  in  looking  at  the  matter  from 
the  other  side— from  the  side  of  the  Great 
Powers  —  that  the  necessary  consent  would 
never  be  granted  because  this  would  be  con- 
trary to  the  interests  of  certain  Powers. 
There  are  Powers  in  Europe  which,  so  long 
as  an  eternal  peace  has  not  been  secured, 
and  so  long  as  war  is  still  within  the  range 
of  possibilities,  must  necessarily  reserve  for 
themselves  the  possibility,  of  violating  the 
neutrality  of  their  neighbours.  There  are 
others  which  look  forward  to  territorial 
expansion  at  the  cost  of  a  neighbouring 
State  as  a  condition  of  life,  a  prospect  of 
so  great  an  importance  to  them  that  they( 
would  not  for  a  moment  consider  the  possi- 
bility of  depriving  themselves  of  it. 

The  answer  to  this  depends  on  whether 
Nippold  is  right  in  saying  that  "  the  earnest 
will  of  the  States  to  secure  under  reservation 
of  their  sovereignty  the  practical  validity  of 
legal  arbitration  cannot  be  doubted  " — or,  as 
Deschamps  expresses  it :  "  No  civilized  State 
exists  which  does  not  recognize  that  the 
relations  among  the  nations  must  rest  on 
right  and  in  cases  of  disagreement  must  be 
regulated  according  to  the  demands  of  justice." 


EPILOGUE  201 

In  conclusion.  I  will  merely  add  that  the 
disarmament  of  small  States  is,  in  my  argu- 
ment, dependent  solely  on  the  fulfilment  of 
the  conditions  stated.  The  idea  is,  of  course, 
that  the  small  States  must  begin,  but  that  the 
great  nations  would  eventually  follow  suit  as 
the  Executive  Power  gradually  developed. 

PACIFIST  PROPOSALS.   II 

It  would  greatly  tend  to  strengthen  the  Paci- 
fist movement,  and  especially  to  increase  the 
importance  of  the  pacifist  centre  at  The 
Hague,  and  it  would  perhaps  augur  well 
for  a  periodical  international  Conference,  if 
the  diplomatic  discussion  between  States  were 
to  take  place,  if  not  at  or  before  the  Hague 
conferences,  then  as  far  as  possible  at  a  place 
common  to  all,  where  representatives  from  all 
Powers  might  be  gathered  (or,  in  the  meantime, 
from  as  many  Powers  as  possible,  or  even  from 
some  of  these) — and  preferably  on  the  spot 
where  the  Hague  Conferences  are  held  at  The 
Hague. 

Carried  to  its  logical  conclusion,  this  thought 
(clearly  Utopian  at  present)  would  imply  that 
all  States  should  have  one  or  more  permanent 
Ambassadors  at  The  Hague,  but  nowhere  else, 
and  that  all  diplomatic  discussions  should  be 
carried  on  there,  and  not  in  the  capitals  of  the; 


202        PACIFISM  AND   ITS  ADVERSARIES 

Powers  concerned.  Commercial  treaties,  for 
instance,  between  France  and  the  United  States 
should  be  ratified  at  The  Hague.  Every  one 
will  at  once  object  that  this  is  impracticable 
and  impossible — and  rightly  so  in  the  meantime. 
(Yet  it  is  not  as  impracticable  and  impossible 
as  it  seems  at  first  glance.  At  present  the 
discussions  take  place  in  this  way.  For 
example,  the  American  Ambassador  in  Paris 
receives  telegraphic  for  written  instructions  from 
Washington,  and  brings  them  to  the  French 
Minister  for  Foreign  Affairs,  who  sends  his 
answer  and  his  instructions  to  the  French 
Ambassador  in  Washington,  who  then  carries 
the  communication  to  the  American  Minister 
for  Foreign  Affairs.  It  would  be  equally  simple 
if  the  discussions  were  carried  on  between  an 
American  and  French  Ambassador  at  The 
Hague  who  each  separately  received  instruc- 
tions from  their  respective  Governments.) 

Much  will  have  happened  before  all  the 
embassies  in  all  the  capitals  of  the  world  are 
done  away  with,  and  diplomatic  discussions 
carried  on  at  The  Hague  only.  But  something 
in  that  direction  could  not  only  be  realized 
without  great  difficulty  but  would  prove  of 
great  practical  advantage. 

All  States — and  especially  the  smaller  States 
— are  not  represented  by  an  Ambassador  in 
every  country.  Thus  Denmark  has  no  Ambas- 


EPILOGUE  203 

sador  in  Constantinople,  in  Bulgaria,  in  Greece, 
Serbia,  Roumania,  Portugal,  Egypt,  Morocco, 
China,  Japan,  Persia,  nor  in  any  South  or 
Central  American  State,  just  as  none  of  the 
States  mentioned  are  represented  in  Copen- 
hagen. In  Spain  and  Belgium,  Denmark  has 
no  special  Ambassador  either,  but  the 
Ambassadors  in  Paris  and  at  The  Hague  act 
as  Ambassadors  in  Madrid  and  in  Brussels, 
in  the  same  way,  as  several  States  have 
one  Ambassador  in  common  representing  them 
in  the  three  Scandinavian  countries.  The 
same  is  the  case  with  other  small  States. 
But  nothing  would  seem  more  practical  than 
that  all  these  Powers  should  each  have  an 
Ambassador  at  The  Hague,  where  discussions 
between  Denmark  and  China,  between  the 
Argentine  and  Greece,  between  Chile  and 
Japan,  could  take  place  at  any  time  instead 
of  waiting  for  the  appointment  of  extra- 
ordinary Ambassadors  or  instead  of  request- 
ing the  Ambassadors  of  foreign  Powers  to 
look  after  one's  interests,  or  of  having  the 
discussions  carried  on  by  persons  of  lower 
status — for  example,  by  Consuls,  who,  perhaps, 
are  not  suited  in  the  least  for  duties  of 
this  kind. 

An  arrangement  of  this  kind,  then,  could 
be  easily  realized  without  raising  objections 
from  any  quarter,  and  for  a  small  State 


204        PACIFISM  AND   ITS  ADVEESARIES 

it  would  have  the,  advantage  of  keeping  it  in 
diplomatic  contact  with  all  the  other  States, 
while  the  expense  would  be  /zzV,  or  at  any 
rate  infinitesimal.  For  the  cost  of  maintain- 
ing an  Embassy  at  The  Hague  would  be 
amply  covered  by  the  abolition  of  several 
other  embassies.  Denmark  could  quite  well 
recall,  not  only  her  Ambassador  to  Holland 
and  Belgium,  but  also  her  Ambassador  in 
Italy  and  Austria-Hungary,  and  she  would 
only  need  to  retain  her  Embassies  in  Ger- 
many, Russia,  Norway,  Sweden,  and  America, 
possibly  also  in  France  and  England — and  even 
among  these  Powers  there  would  probably 
be  several  who  would  welcome  the  idea  of 
eventually  carrying  on  their  discussions  with 
Denmark  at  The  Hague.  South  and  Central 
American  Powers  would  then  only  need  to 
have  one  common  European  Ambassador  at 
The  Hague,  etc. 

If  a  small  State  could  gradually  withdraw 
all  her  Embassies  and  have  all  her  diplo- 
matic discussions  carried  on  at  The  Hague, 
this  would  presumably  be  a  great  benefit 
for  her.  She  would  be  in  a  position  of 
greater  freedom  and  security  during  her  con- 
versations with  a  Great  Power,  as  it  would  not 
be  so  much  a  case  of  a  man  to  man  duel,  since 
all  the  other  Ambassadors  would  be  within 
reach  and  her  own  Ambassador  would  feel 


EPILOGUE  205 

that  he  had  a  freer  hand  at  The  Hague 
than  he  would  have  in  the  capital  of  his 
opponent. 

But,  besides  this  advantage,  such  an  arrange- 
ment would  afford  an  indirect  support  to 
the  Hague  Conference  and  would  form  the 
beginning  of  an  International  Statutory  Con- 
gress— a  beginning  of  the  United  States  of 
Europe. 

An  institution  of  this  kind,  in  its  fully 
developed  form,  is  at  present  impracticable  and 
lies  in  a  far  distant  future.  But  a  begin- 
ning might  be  made  at  any  time,  even  if 
only  two  small  States  led  the  way  in  the 
hope  of  several  others  following  by  and 
by.  The  beginning  might  be  made  by  Denmark 
and  Norway  agreeing  to  withdraw  their 
respective  Ambassadors  ,  in  Christiania  and 
Copenhagen,  and  to  permit  all  their  future 
diplomatic  discussions  to  be  carried  on  through 
their  present  Ambassadors  at  The  Hague. 
Denmark  and  Norway  would  next  intimate 
to  all  the  Powers  where  they  are  not  repre- 
sented that  definitive  conversations  might  be 
conducted  through  their  Ambassadors  at  The 
Hague.  In  this  way  the  Embassies  at  The 
Hague  would  at  once  gain  somewhat  in  influence 
and  authority  and  they  would  gradually  attain 
real  importance  in  the  event  of  other  States 
following  the  examples  set  them,  and  this 


206        PACIFISM  AND   ITS  ADVERSARIES 

would  lead  to  Ambassadors  being  sent  to 
The  Hague  by,  Powers  which  are  not  repre- 
sented there  at  present. 

The  next  step  for  Denmark  and  Norway 
would  be  to  endeavour  to  enter  into  a  similar 
arrangement  with  one  or  more  of  the  other 
Powers — e.g.  with  France,  then  with  England, 
Russia,  Austria,  Germany,  until  at  last  they  all 
had  only  one  Embassy  at  The  Hagfue — and 
no  more. 

It  must  be  remembered  that  to  make  the 
arrangement  satisfactory,  Denmark  and  Nor- 
way would  not  only  require  to  secure  the 
friendly  consent  of  the  Powers  to  withdraw 
their  Ambassadors  in  London,  Paris,  Berlin,. 
etc.,  but  they  must  also  request  the  Powers  to 
withdraw  their  Embassies  from  Copenhagen 
and  Christiania,  and  to  agree  to  discuss 
their  relations  only  at  The  Hague.  For 
an  arrangement  under  which  Denmark,  for 
example,  had  no  Ambassador  in  Petrograd, 
While  Russia  had  one  in  Copenhagen,  would 
be  worse  than  that  existing  at  present.  Final 
conversations  might  then  easily  be  carried  on 
secretly  in  Copenhagen  between  the  Russian 
Ambassador  ,and  the  Danish  Minister  of  Foreign 
Affairs. 

It  may  be  objected  that  the  Great  Powers 
could  not  dispense  with  their  local  embassies, 
for  the  Ambassador  must  be  mediis  in  rebus. 


EPILOGUE  207 

He  is  not  only  the  middleman  and  the  spokes- 
man in  questions  of  international  dispute,  but 
he  is  also  the  political  agent  of  his  State,  who- 
studies  circumstances  in  the  foreign  State,  and 
reports  on  its  political,  military,  and  economic 
conditions.  Some  of  these  duties  might  be 
performed  even  now  by  a  Consul  -  General, 
others  by  the  military  attaches  (who  with  the 
further  development  of  the  peace  movement 
would  become  superfluous,  as  military  trials 
of  strength  would  become  more  and  more 
obsolete  in  proportion  as  international  economic 
co-operation  and  reciprocity  gained  the  day.) 
But  even  if  it  is  undeniable  that  a  long  time 
will  pass  before  such  an  arrangement  is  carried 
into  effect  for  all  States,  this  holds  true  about 
every  reform,  and  a  beginning  has  its  own 
value. 

The  economic  saving  caused  by  the  arrange- 
ment we  have  sketched  would  be  the  least  of 
its  advantages.  Far  more  valuable  for  the  small 
States  would  be  the  greater  moral  freedom, 
and  the  more  assured  position  which  such  an 
embassy  would  enjoy  in  the  centre  of  Europe^ 
within  reach  of  all  the  other  nations  of  Europe, 
coram  Europa,  and  the  greater  prospects  of 
a  peaceful  issue  as  the  result  of  definitive 
conversations  regarding  international  affairs. 


CONCLUSION. 

THE  PROGRAMME  OF  THE  PACIFIST  CAUSE 

WORDS  by  themselves  are  of  no  value  ;  theories 
are  useless  if  they  have  no  practical  results. 

Let  us  from  the  long— perhaps  too  longs- 
arguments  and  inquiries  of  this  book  try  to 
pick  out  the  practical  results,  however  meagre 
these  may  perhaps  appear. 

Its  purpose  is  not  only  to  represent  how 
things  ought  to  be,  not  only  to  point  out  the 
rights  and  the  truth  of  the  Pacifist  movement, 
and  to  describe  the  beneficent  consequences  of 
its  victory — even  if  this  also  has  its  value- 
but,  more  than  this,  to  show  the  way  to 
victory  and  give  practical  direction  regarding 
the  work  to  that  end. 

Many  questions  have  been  raised  in  the  book 
(and  these  may  also  have  their  value).  Not 
many  answers  have  been  given.  This  I  regret, 
but  ultra  posse  nemo  obligator.  Let  us,  then, 
finally  endeavour  to  collect  these  answers 
together  in  the  "  Programme  of  the  Pacifist 
Cause,"  not,  it  should  be  noted,  the  eschato- 
logical  programme  of  the  Pacifist  cause,  which 


CONCLUSION  209 

is  briefly  expressed  in  these  few  words :  arbi- 
tration, disarmament,  an  international  central 
authority — words  which,  unfortunately,  to  many 
of  the  naive  enthusiasts  concerned,  exhaust  all 
thoughts  and  ideas  about  the  programme  of 
the  Pacifist  cause — but  the  programme  for  to- 
day. Where  should  the  work  of  the  Pacifist 
movement  lie  at  present?  How  should  it  be 
conducted?  Towards  what  preliminary  and 
immediately  attainable  end  should  it  be 
directed?  The  work  must,  then,  first  of 
all,  as  has  been  said  so  often  before,  tend  to 
create  a  broad  basis  for  the  development, 
growth,  and  extension  of  the  Pacifist  cause, 
to  bring  about  conditions  for  the  victory  of 
the  cause,  namely,  the  recognition  of  the  rights 
of  peace  and  international  liberty  and  equality, 
in  other  words  universal  Free  trade. 

Thus  the  task  of  the  Pacifist  movement 
becomes,  in  the  first  instance,  an  energetic  and 
indefatigable  agitation  to  secure,  firstly,  that  all 
citizens,  regardless  of  nationality  or  creed,  are 
placed  on  a  footing  of  equality  within  each 
State.  That  every  people,  including  those  under 
foreign  rule,  and  more  especially  if  they  are 
a  conquered  people,  shall  receive  full  recog- 
nition of  their  rightful  claim  to  a  free  and 
unrestricted  use  of  their  own  language  in  the 
school,  the  church,  and  the  law-courts,  at  public 

meetings  and  in  the  jgf  ess  ;    of  their  claim  to 

14 


210        PACIFISM  AND   ITS  ADVERSARIES 

have  priests,  teachers,  judges,  and  magistrates 
from  among  their  own  midst ;  of  their  claim 
for  economic  liberty  and  equality,  and  for  the 
inviolability  of  the  rights  of  property  ;  and  of 
their  claim  for  educational  liberty  and  for  the 
support  of  the  State  for  their  national  culture  ; 
and,  secondly,  that  international  economic  free- 
dom and  equality  shall  prevail — that  is,  that 
customs  barriers  shall  gradually  disappear  and 
Free  trade  be  introduced  everywhere. 

On  this  basis,  and  on  this  basis  alone,  the 
further  work  of  the  peace  movement  may  pro- 
ceed with  prospects  of  success.  And  this 
further  work  should  be  conducted  in  some  such 
way  as  this  :— 

International  research  commissions,  media- 
tion, and  arbitration  should  be  further  de- 
veloped in  the  manner  indicated.  Especially, 
should  mediation  be  made  compulsory  every- 
where where  the  parties  do  not  at  once  agree, 
or  where  they  are  bound  to  arbitration  by 
treaty,  and  the  mediation  should  be  undertaken 
by  the  standing  Council  of  Administration 
before  the  Peace  Bureau  at  The  Hague,  which 
is  armed  internationally  with  the  duty  of  initia- 
tive. Further,  treaties  of  arbitration  should 
be  drawn  up  in  as  many  cases  as  possible  and 
should  be  as  all-embracingi  as  possible,  and,  as 
far  as  possible,  the  clauses  regarding  circum- 
stances, honour,  and  independence  should  be 


CONCLUSION  211 

omitted.  The  good  offices  of  the  permanent 
Court  of  Justice  of  the  Hague  Conference 
(perhaps  modified  in  the  manner  indicated) 
should  always  be  sought,  compulsory  arbitra- 
tion should  be  internationally  agreed  upon 
between  wider  and  wider  areas,  thus  gradually 
rendering  arbitration  treaties  superfluous,  while 
in  preparation  therefor  the  above-mentioned 
proposal  should  be  brought  into  operation,  that 
the  International  Bureau  at  The  Hague  keep 
an  authorized  list  of  the  States  which  are 
willing  to  enter  into  compulsory  arbitration, 
and  of  the  questions  which  each  of  them  is 
willing  to  have  decided  in  that  way. 

Further,  the  Court  of  Justice  at  The  Hague, 
its  International  Bureau,  and  its  standing 
Council  of  Arbitration  should  be  fostered 
and  developed  by  more  and  more  functions 
being  delegated  to  them,  and  the  Hague  Con- 
ferences become  statutory  and  periodical. 
Further,  their  business  procedure  should  be 
simplified  and  made  more  effective,  and  the 
principle  of  unanimity  be  abolished,  at  least 
in  respect  of  certain  matters  as  a  beginning. 

Further,  the  supreme  prize-court  should  be 
established  as  quickly  as  possible,  and  the 
Declaration  of  London  ratified  by  its  contract- 
ing parties,  and  afterwards  adopted  by  all  States 
at  the  next  Hague  Conference. 

Further,  it  should  be  made  clear  to  all  that 


212        PACIFISM  AND   ITS  ADVERSARIES 

the  progress  of  arbitration  alone  is  insufficient 
to  solve  the  peace  problem  ;  that  this  cannot 
be  secured  in  a  general  sense  within  the  frame- 
work of  national  and  political  institutions  as 
these  exist  at  present,  but  that  the  creation 
of  new  instruments  Which  go  beyond  these  is 
required,  especially  the  creation  of  a  real  inter- 
national central  authority,  through  a  federation 
either  of  all  the  States  of  the  earth  or,  as  a 
transition  stage,  of  a  larger  or  smaller  number 
of  these. 

To  promote  the  development  ol  the  Hague 
Conference,  and  to  enable  it  to  become  a  real 
international  central  authority,  it  is  further  pro- 
posed that  the  Pacifist  movement  should  work 
more  and  more  towards  securing  that  diplo- 
matic negotiations  between  individual  States 
(and  in  the  meantime  between  States  which 
are  not  mutually  represented  in  each  other's 
hinds)  should  be  carried  on  at  The  Hague, 
where  ultimately  all  States,  without  exception, 
should  have  permanent  embassies,  while  the 
local  embassies  should  be  gradually  withdrawn. 

Finally,  it  is  proposed  that  all  States  that 
wish  it,  after  applying  to  the  Hague  Conference, 
should  obtain  international  consent  for  their 
disarmament,  with  the  guarantee  of  all  the  other 
States  for  their  integrity  and  independence. 
They  on  their  part  should  agree  to  submit  all 
questions  in  dispute  to  the  decision  of  the  Hague 


CONCLUSION  213 

Conference  in  return  for  the  yearly  payment 
of  a  sum  fixed  by  the  Hague  Conference  towards 
one  or  more  specified  purposes. 

This  is  the  positive  side  of  the  programme. 
Is  it  necessary  to  say  that  it  has  also  a  negative 
side — non  nocere :  not  to  injure  the  Pacifist 
movement  by  immature,  naive,  and  Utopian 
proposals,  and  by  immediate  and  unpractical 
demands,  but  to  remember  before  all  else  the 
fundamental  truth  that  peace  without  justice 
is  worth  nothing,  that  without  justice  peace  is 
a  fiction,  and  does  not  really  exist,  that  a  just 
decision  through  war  is  to  be  preferred  to 
an  unjust  decision  through  peace — that,  in  other 
words,  the  necessary  foundation  of  peace  must 
be  the  rights  of  peace. 


Printed  in  Grtut  Hritain  by 
CXV.'IN  BKO'lJitKK,  '.  IMlTkD,  liiii  GKKSHAM   r/:ESS,   WOXIXG  AND  LONDON 


Principles     of    Social 
Reconstruction 

Demy  Svo.    BY  BERTRAND  RUSSELL,  F.R.S.         6s.  net. 

The  purpose  of  this  book  is  to  suggest  directions  of  social  and  political 
reform,  on  the  basis  of  a  political  psychology  suggested  by  recent  scientific 
research  and  experience  derived  from  the  war.  Men's  important  actions 
are  more  governed  by  impulse  than  by  calculation  ;  but  impulse  is  largely 
moulded  by  circumstances.  The  impulses  that  mould  politics  and  social 
life  may  be  broadly  divided  into  those  that  are  possessive  and  those  that 
are  creative.  Property,  war,  and  the  State  are  embodiments  of  possessive- 
ness  ;  such  institutions  as  education,  marriage,  and  religion  are  capable  of 
embodying  creativeness,  though  at  present  they  do  so  very  imperfectly. 
Possessiveness  is  the  source  of  fear,  oppression,  and  strife  ;  creativeness 
is  the  source  of  hope  and  of  constructive  pacifism.  Institutions  largely 
determine  how  large  a  part  possessiveness  and  creativeness  respectively 
piay  in  men's  lives.  This  book  endeavours  to  show  how  the  part  played 
by  creativeness  might  be  indefinitely  increased. 

Authority,  Liberty  and  Function 
in  the  Light  of  the  War 

A    Critique    of   Authority   and   Liberty   as   the 

Foundations   of  the   Modern  State  and  an 

Attempt    to    Base    Societies    on    the 

Principle    of   Function 
Crown  Svo.       BY    RAMIRO    DE    MAEZTU      4,.  64.  net. 

This  book  is  born  of  the  war  ;  but  it  sees  the  war  as  the  outcome  of 
something  wrong  that  has  prevailed  in  the  European  mind  from  the 
Renaissance  onwards.  It  sees  in  the  war  a  conflict  of  two  principles — 
Authority,  based  on  force,  and  Liberty  arising  from  the  ideal  of 
happiness.  Both  are,  from  the  author's  point  of  view,  equally  false. 
He  can  see  in  Liberty  nothing  else  but  the  individual  longing  to 
satisfy  our  lust  and  our  pride.  He  sees  in  Authority  only  the  con- 
sciousness of  power,  and  he  denies  altogether  its  pretensions  to  a 
moral  right.  The  two  first  parts  are  a  critical  analysis  of  Authority 
and  Liberty  as  the  foundations  of  the  modern  State.  But  while 
he  cannot  see  in  Liberty  a  practical  principle  of  association,  because 
Liberty  and  Association  are  a  contradiction  in  terms,  and  because  the 
very  first  thing  even  liberal  countries  do  in  times  of  crisis  is  to  suspend 
individual  liberty,  he  sees  in  Authority  a  principle  of  possible  practical 
triumph,  a  mischievous  fact.  To  supersede  both  he  needs  to  find  a. 
principle  which  at  the  same  time  binds  men  in  society  and  yet  is  not 
authoritative.  He  finds  it  in  the  function  and  in  the  ideal  of  maintaining 
and  increasing  social  values. 


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